Critical Writing

An Introduction to Critical Writing and Analytical Thinking
Edited, Annotated, and Co-Written by Professor Gregory Tomso
Much of the material in this guide is taken from the following writing lab and writing program web sites:
Purdue http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
UNC Chapel Hill http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/
Harvard http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~expos/
All material reprinted with permission.

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PART ONE: THE PHILOSOPHY OF CRITICAL WRITING .............................................. 4
I. THE SEARCH FOR MEANING ..................................................................................................... 5

II. THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF ARGUMENTS ................................................................. 6
A. WHAT IS AN ARGUMENT? .......................................................................................................... 6
B. WHY ARE ARGUMENTS IMPORTANT? ......................................................................................... 6
III. A FORMAL DEFINITION OF CRITICAL WRITING .................................................................. 7
IV. DEVELOPING A TOPIC ............................................................................................................. 7
A. CRITICAL READING .................................................................................................................... 8
B. MORE STRATEGIES FOR CRITICAL READING: RANTS AND OTHER WAYS OF RESPONDING TO
A TEXT ....................... 8
C. SOME COMMON TOPICS FOR LITERARY AND CULTURAL ANALYSIS ....................................... 11
D. USING PATTERNS AND PROBLEMS TO DEVELOP TOPICS ......................................................... 11
E. THINKING ABOUT LITERARY FORM TO HELP DEVELOP A TOPIC ............................................. 13
F. AVOIDING PITFALLS ................................................................................................................. 14
V. HIGHER ORDER THINKING .................................................................................................... 15
A. SIGNIFICANCE AND THE SO WHAT QUESTION. .................................................................... 15
B. MOVING FROM LITERAL TO ABSTRACT THINKING .................................................................. 16
PART TWO: THE PRACTICE OF CRITICAL WRITING ................................................. 20
I. THESIS STATEMENTS ............................................................................................................... 21

A. DOS AND DONTS.................................................................................................................... 21
B. MORE DOS AND DONTS ......................................................................................................... 22
II. CLOSE READING ..................................................................................................................... 25
A. CLOSE READING DEFINED ....................................................................................................... 25
B. HOW TO CLOSE READ: LESSON ONE........................................................................................ 25
C. HOW TO CLOSE READ: LESSON TWO: PLOT SUMMARY VS. ANALYSIS .................................. 27
III. REFINING CLOSE READINGS AND MAKING THEM A PART OF YOUR LARGER ARGUMENT
....................................................................................................................................................... 31
IV. STRUCTURING YOUR ESSAY ................................................................................................. 32
V. STRUCTURING YOUR ARGUMENT: TOPIC SENTENCES AND SIGNPOSTS ........................... 32
A. FORMS OF TOPIC SENTENCES................................................................................................... 33
B. SIGNPOSTS ................................................................................................................................ 34
C. SOME TEMPLATES FOR BEGINNERS ......................................................................................... 35
VI. SOME STRATEGIES FOR WRITING AN EFFECTIVE INTRODUCTION ................................... 36
VII. WARRANTS........................................................................................................................... 38
VIII. ADDING COMPLEXITY TO YOUR ARGUMENT: WORKING WITH COUNTERARGUMENTS
....................................................................................................................................................... 39
IX. USING LOGIC TO STRENGTHEN YOUR CRITICAL ARGUMENT: UNDERSTANDING AND
AVOIDING FALLACIES................................................................................................................. 40
PART THREE: THE MECHANICS OF CRITICAL WRITING......................................... 49
I. WORKING WITH QUOTATIONS ................................................................................................ 50

A. WHEN TO USE QUOTATIONS ..................................................................................................... 50
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B. HOW DO I SET UP AND FOLLOW UP A QUOTATION? .................................................................. 51

C. HOW MUCH SHOULD I QUOTE? ................................................................................................. 53
D. HOW DO I COMBINE QUOTATION MARKS WITH OTHER PUNCTUATION MARKS? ...................... 55
E. HOW DO I INDICATE QUOTATIONS WITHIN QUOTATIONS? ....................................................... 55
F. WHEN DO I USE THOSE THREE DOTS ( . . . )? ............................................................................. 56
G. IS IT EVER OKAY TO INSERT MY OWN WORDS OR CHANGE WORDS IN A QUOTATION?............. 57
II. WORD CHOICE ....................................................................................................................... 58
III. PARALLEL STRUCTURE ........................................................................................................ 60
PART IV: TEMPLATES FOR INVENTION ......................................................................... 63

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PART ONE: The Philosophy of Critical Writing

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I. The Search for Meaning
Writing an analysis of a piece of fiction can be a mystifying process. First, literary

analyses (or papers that offer an interpretation of a story) rely on the assumption that
stories must mean something. How does a story mean something? Isnt a story just an
arrangement of characters and events? And if the author wanted to convey a meaning,
wouldnt he or she be much better off writing an essay just telling us what he or she
meant?
Its pretty easy to see how at least some stories convey clear meanings or morals. Just
think about a parable like the Prodigal Son or a nursery tale about crying "wolf." Stories
like these are reduced down to the bare elements, giving us just enough detail to lead us
to their main points, and because they are relatively easy to understand and tend to stick
in our memories, theyre often used in some kinds of education.
But if the meanings were always as clear as they are in parables, who would really need
to write a paper about them? Interpretations of fiction, after all, would not be interesting
if the meaning of the story were clear to everyone who reads it. The paper would become
superfluous. Thankfully (or perhaps regrettably, depending on your perspective) the
stories were asked to interpret in our classes are a good bit more complicated than most
parables. These stories cant be easily reduced to one specific meaning that every reader
can agree upon, but instead they use characters, settings, and actions to illustrate issues
that have no easy resolution. They show different sides of a problem, and they can raise
new questions about a problem. Nothing against the parable, but if stories all led to clear
lessons or meanings, there wouldnt be much reason to read them more than once, study
them closely, or talk to others about the impressions they get from a story. In short, the
stories we read in class have meanings that are arguable and complicated, and its our job
to sort them out.
It might seem that the stories do have specific meanings, and the instructor has already
decided what that meaning is. Not true. Instructors can be pretty dazzling (or mystifying)
with their interpretations, but thats because they have a lot of practice with stories and
have developed a sense of the kinds of things to look for. Even so, the most well-
informed professor rarely arrives at conclusions that someone else wouldnt disagree
with--and often for good reasons. In fact, most professors are aware that their
interpretations are debatable and actually love a good argument. But lets not go to the
other extreme. To say that there is no one answer is not to say that anything we decide to
say about a novel or short story is valid, interesting, or valuable. Interpretations of fiction
are often opinions, but not all opinions are equal. So, what makes one literary
interpretation stronger or more compelling than another? The answer is a good argument.
Source: UNC Writing Center, Writing About Literature Handout

(http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/literature.html)
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II. The Nature and Importance of Arguments
When you write a literary essay, you are essentially making an argument. You are
arguing that your perspectivean interpretation, an evaluative judgment, or a critical
evaluationis a valid one (Purdue, OWL).
A. What is an Argument?
In academic writing, an argument is usually a main idea, often called a "claim" or "thesis
statement," backed up with evidence that supports the idea. Ninety-nine percent of the
time you will need to make some sort of claim and use evidence to support it, and your
ability to do this well will separate your papers from those of students who see
assignments as mere accumulations of fact and detail. In other words, gone are the happy
days of being given a "topic" about which you can write anything that comes to mind. It
is time to stake out a position and prove why it is a good position for a thinking person to
hold.
Claims can be as simple as "protons are positively charged and electrons are
negatively charged," with evidence such as, "In this experiment, protons and electrons
acted in such and such a way." Claims can also be as complex as "the end of the South
African system of apartheid was inevitable," using reasoning and evidence such as,
"Every successful revolution in the modern era has come about after the government in
power has given and then removed small concessions to the uprising group." In either
case, the rest of your paper will detail reasons and facts that have led you to believe that
your position is best.
When beginning to write a paper, ask yourself, "What is my point"? For example,
the point of this guide is to help you become a better writer, and its arguing that an
important step in the process of writing argumentation is understanding the concept of
argumentation. If your papers do not have a main point, they cannot be arguing for
anything. Asking yourself what your point is can help you avoid a mere "information
dump."
Source: UNC Writing Center, Effective Academic Writing: The Argument Handout
(http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/argument.html).
B. Why are arguments important?
Most material you learn in college is or has been debated by someone, somewhere, at
some time. Even when the material you read or hear is presented as simple "information"
or "fact," it may actually be one person's interpretation of a set of information or facts. In
your writing, instructors may call on you to question that interpretation and either defend
it, refute it, or offer some new view of your own. In writing assignments, you will almost
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always need to do more than just present information that you have gathered or
regurgitate information that was discussed in class. You will need to select a point of
view and provide evidence (in other words, use "argument") to shape the material and
offer your interpretation of the material.
If you think that "fact," not argument, rules intelligent thinking, consider these
examples. At one point, the "great minds" of Western Europe firmly believed the Earth
was flat. They had discussions about how obviously true this "fact" was. You are able to
disagree now because people who saw that argument as faulty set out to make a better
argument and proved it. The more recent O.J. Simpson trial provides another example.
Both the prosecution and the defense used DNA testing but in totally different ways. The
prosecution brought in DNA experts to prove that DNA testing was good evidence, while
the defense called other experts to prove it was poor evidence. Differences of opinion are
how human knowledge develops, and scholars like your instructors spend their lives
engaged in debate over what may be counted as "true," "real," or "right" in their fields. In
their courses, they want you to engage in similar kinds of critical thinking and debate in
your writing. The more you improve your skills in this area, the better you will be at
thinking critically, reasoning, making choices, and weighing evidence.
III. A Formal Definition of Critical Writing

Critical writing develops an idea in the form of an argument and uses a text or
other cultural artifact as a medium for developing that idea. Effective critical papers
require complex, argumentative theses; clear and compelling significance for a general
academic audience; specific and thorough introductions; strong topic sentences; solid
transitions between ideas and between paragraphs; convincing evidence; careful
interpretation of evidence, including clear warrants and close readings; effective word
choice; thought-provoking counterarguments; and conclusions that showcase the paper
writers extensive thinking about his or her topic. As you may already suspect, critical
writing is different from writing or speech found in: diaries; sermons; journalism
(newspapers, etc.); television and radio talk shows; campaign (or stump) speeches;
journals; digests; executive summaries; rants; blogs; and late-night dorm debates.
IV. Developing a Topic
Student often speak of the trouble they have in finding topics for papersas if topics
were somehow pre-existing entities that were secretly hidden in the pages of a book! The
truth is that good topics are the result of a process of critical thinking that begins with
your reading of a text.
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A. Critical Reading
The first step in becoming a good critical writer is training yourself to be a good critical
reader. Critical reading is a big part of understanding an argument. Remember that the
author of every texteven a literary text like a novel or a poemhas an agenda,
something that he or she wants you to believe. Take notes either in the margins or on a
separate sheet as you read. Put away that highlighter! Simply highlighting a text is only
good for memorizing that text--it does not encourage critical reading. Part of the goal is
to put the author's ideas in your own words. Then you can stop thinking of these ideas as
facts and start thinking of them as arguments. When you read, ask yourself the following
questions:
"What is the author trying to prove?"

"What is the author assuming I will agree with?"
Do I agree with the author?
Does the author adequately defend her argument? What kind of proof does she
use? Is there something she leaves out that I would put in? Does putting it in hurt
her argument?
As you get used to reading critically, you will start to see the sometimes hidden agendas
of other writers, and you can use this skill to improve your own ability to argue.
B. More Strategies for Critical Reading: Rants and Other Ways of

Responding to a Text
1. Dealing with Your Feelings-Go Ahead and Rant
Students, like you, often feel frustrated when they are asked to write a critical analysis of
a text. Lets face it: we live in a culture where books and other commodities (like
movies and automobiles) are usually marketed in ways that emphasize how they make us
feel, not what they make us think. While theres nothing wrong with feelings, of course,
theres certainly a lot more to living an intellectual life than reading a novel or a poem
only because youre seeking emotional comfort, or because youre trying to escape
from other feelings. A vast majority of us respond to certain texts at a very visceral level:
we get angry, we laugh, we cry . . . we feel the futility of the world or the miniscule
nature of our own existence. Its important to treasure these experiences of reading a
text, but its also crucial, if you want to be a serious scholar, to learn how to contextualize
those experiences and to how to put them into a productive relationship with other ways
of experiencing a text. The bottom line is this: 99% percent of the time, your personal
feelings about a text are going to be really, really boring to other people.
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If you find yourself unable to move beyond your feelings after reading a text, then why
not put those feelings to work for you? Lets say you read a short story and one of its
characters made you really, really angry. Try to back away from your anger just a little,
enough to ask: Why am I angry? What specific qualities or behaviors related to that
character made me feel this way? Maybe the character lied a lot, or maybe he was a thief
or a murderer.
Naturally, your first impulse will likely be to say or write something judgmental about
that character. If thats the case, go ahead and say or write whatever you feel like
writing, no matter how judgmental it is. This is whats known as a rant. Rants show up
frequently in early drafts of student papers, and theyre something you should learn to
have in the privacy of your own dorm room or apartment. The only way to work through
a rant is to have it: go ahead and feel your feelings and get them out in the open. Just
remember to spare your readers from having to read this huge emotional dumping fest!
Once your rant is out of the way, go back to the specifics: Is the character a liar? A
murderer? Now, ask yourself:
Why did the author create this unsavory character?
Whats the author trying to show here?
Whats the larger dynamic or problem into which this character and his/her/its
behaviors fit?
2. Character as a Literary Device
The discussion of rants above brings us to a very important statement about characters in
a text: CHARACTERS ARE NOT REAL PEOPLE. Literary characters may act like
real people, they may look like real people, they may talk like real people, they may
make us feel like they are real people, they may be based on real people, and they may
even be able to teach us about real people, but they are NOT real. This idea, as basic as it
sounds, is one of the hardest ideas for students of literature to grasp. When authors create
characters for their stories, they do just that: they create them. All characters, at one
level or another, are works of the imagination. Its your job as a critic to stop seeing
characters as real people, and to think about them as messengers or vehicles for narrative
content. Students are always temptedcompelled evento write about characters as if
they are real people. Youll find yourself doing this even when youre trying not to!
Thinking about character as yet another literary device or conventionlike plot, setting,
symbols, imagery, metaphor, etc.is one of the hardest critical leaps youll have to make
if you want to write intelligently about literature.
3. Thinking about a texts rhetorical situation: Questions for Analytical Readers
Rhetoric, simply put, is the art of using language. While the word rhetoric has a
negative connotation today (i.e., The politicians words were empty rhetoric), that
negative meaning is relatively new. For centuries, and especially in the classical era of
ancient Greece and Rome, rhetoric was the most important topic a student could choose
to study. Rhetoric includes the arts of exposition, argumentation, and virtually all other
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work that you might wish to do with or through language. Thinking about a text
rhetorically is one of the most important and powerful ways of beginning a critical
analysis.
Heres a long and very useful list of questions to ask of every text you read:
Who is the texts author, and what is important to know about him or her?
For whom is the author writing, and why? How would you describe the texts
audience?
How does the genre of your text (poetry, novel, play, etc.) actually work? What
assumptions do readers have to bring to various genres in order for them to make
sense? What conventions (traditional and widely accepted ways of conveying
information) does the particular genre youre interested in use to communicate
with its readers?
What ideological assumptions (that is, unspoken and/or unexamined beliefs) hold
your text together? What ways of thinking are in place that make your text
intelligible to its readers?
How does this text challenge or agree with other texts? What, in other words, are
its intertextual characteristics?
Does the author refer to other texts within this text? What kinds of texts are they?
Do they help establish or challenge the current texts credibility?
What is the historical context in which your text was written? How does this text
engage the intellectual, social, and political climate of its time?
How would you describe the aesthetics of your text? How are those aesthetics
related to genre, ideology, other art forms, history, etc?
What key terms, images and concepts has the author chosen to highlight in this
text? Where in the piece do you encounter these terms, and are their patterns to
their use?
Are there any terms or phrases that seem historically specific?
How does the author formulate relationships among key terms, images, and
concepts?
What claims (about people, the world, history, science, life, death, etc.) are made
in this text? Which claims are the most important? Are they supported?
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Source: G. Tomso; some questions adapted from Helpful Questions for Analytical
Reading, author unknown, possibly Sharon Crowley
C. Some Common Topics for Literary and Cultural Analysis
What kinds of topics are good ones?
The best topics are ones that originate out of your own reading of a work of literature.
Here are some common approaches to consider:
A discussion of a works characters: Are they realistic, symbolic, historically-

based?
A comparison/contrast of the choices different authors or characters make in a
work.
A reading of a work based on an outside philosophical perspective (Ex. How
would a Freudian read Hamlet?).
A study of the sources or historical events that occasioned a particular work (Ex.
comparing G.B. Shaws Pygmalion with the original Greek myth of Pygmalion).
An analysis of a specific image occurring in several works (Ex. the use of moon
imagery in certain plays, poems, novels).
A "deconstruction" of a particular work (Ex. unfolding an underlying racist
worldview in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness).
A reading from an established political or intellectual perspective (Ex. How
would a Marxist read William Blakes "London"?).
A study of the social, political, or economic context in which a work was
writtenhow does the context influence the work?
Source: Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL), Writing about Literature Handout
(http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_lit.html)
D. Using Patterns and Problems to Develop Topics
After reading your story, a topic may just jump out at you, or you may have recognized a
pattern or identified a problem that youd like to think about in more detail. What is a
pattern or a problem? A pattern can be the recurrence of certain kinds of imagery or
events. Usually, repetitions of particular aspects of a story (similar events in the plot,
similar description, even repetitions in particular words) tend to render those elements
more conspicuous. Lets say Im writing a paper on Mary Shelleys novel Frankenstein.
In the course of reading that book, I keep noticing the authors use of biblical imagery:
Victor Frankenstein anticipates that "a new species would bless me as its creator and
source" (52) while the monster is not sure whether to consider himself as an Adam or a
Satan. These details might help me interpret the way characters think about themselves
and about each other, as well as allow me to infer what the author might have wanted her
reader to think by using the Bible as a frame of reference. On another subject, I also
notice that the book repeatedly makes reference to types of education. The book routinely
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makes reference to books that its characters read and the different contexts in which
learning takes place.
A problem, on the other hand, is something in the story that, to put it plainly, bugs you or
that doesnt seem to add up. A character might act in some way thats unaccountable, a
narrator may leave out what we think is important information (or may focus on
something that seems trivial), or a narrator or character may offer an explanation for
something that doesnt seem to make sense to us. Not all problems that we have with a
story lead in interesting directions, but some definitely do and even seem to be important
parts of the story. In Frankenstein, Victor works day and night to achieve his goal of
bringing life to the dead, but once he realizes his goal, he is immediately repulsed by his
creation and runs away. Why? Is there something wrong with his creation, something
wrong with his goal in the first place, or something wrong with Victor himself? The book
doesnt give us a clear answer, but seems to invite us to interpret this problem.
If nothing immediately strikes you as interesting or no patterns or problems jump out at

you, dont worry. Just start making a list of whatever you remember from your reading
regardless of how insignificant it may seem to you now. Consider a characters peculiar
behavior or comments, the unusual way the narrator describes an event, or the authors
placement of an action in an odd context.
Once you have a working topic in mind, skim back over the story and make a more
comprehensive list of the details that relate to your point. For my paper about education
in Frankenstein, Ill want to take notes on what Victor Frankenstein reads at home, where
he goes to school and why, what he studies at school, what others think about those
studies, etc. And even though Im primarily interested in Victors education, at this stage
in the writing, Im also interested in moments of education in the novel that dont directly
involve this character. These other examples might provide a context or some useful
contrasts that could illuminate my evidence relating to Victor. With this goal in mind, Ill
also take notes on how the monster educates himself, what he reads, and what he learns
from those he watches. As you make your notes keep track of page numbers so you can
quickly find the passages in your book again and so you can easily document quoted
passages when you write without having to fish back through the book.
At this point, you want to include anything, anything, that might be useful, and you also
want to avoid the temptation to arrive at definite conclusions about your topic. Remember
that one of the qualities that makes for a good interpretation is that it avoids the obvious.
You want to develop complex ideas, and the best way to do that is to keep your ideas
flexible until youve considered the evidence carefully. Above all, you dont want to
write a simplistic paper, and to avoid that, you need to be willing to challenge or expand
your own thoughts. A good gauge of complexity is whether you feel you understand
more about your topic than you did when you began (and even just reaching a higher
state of confusion is a good indicator that youre treating your topic in a complex way).

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E. Thinking about Literary Form to Help Develop a Topic
When you jot down ideas, you can focus on the observations from the narrator or things
that certain characters say or do. These elements are certainly important. In addition, it
might help you come up with more evidence if you also take into account some of the
broader components that go into making fiction, things like plot, point of view, character,
setting, and symbols.
1. Your plot could have similarities to whole groups of other stories, all having
conventional or easily recognizable plots. These types of stories are often called genres.
Some popular genres include the gothic (like Frankenstein), the romance (like Wuthering
Heights or Jane Eyre), the detective story (any Sherlock Holmes story), the
bildungsroman (this is just a German term for a novel that is centered around the
development of its main characters, as in Great Expectations or Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Man), and the novel of manners (a novel that focuses on the behavior and foibles
of a particular class or social group as do all of Jane Austens novels). These categories
are often helpful in characterizing a piece of writing, but as with any attempt to
categorize, this approach has its limitations. Many novels dont fit nicely into one genre
and others seem to borrow a bit from a variety of different categories. For example, a
reader could actually read Frankenstein as a bildungsroman, and given my own working
thesis on education, Im more interested in Victors development than in relating
Frankenstein to the gothic genre.
2. The question of genre also introduces questions of point of view, that is, who is telling
the story and what do they or dont they know. Is the tale told by an omniscient or all-
knowing narrator who doesnt interact in the events, or is it presented by one of the
characters within the story? Can the reader trust that person to give an objective account,
or does that narrator color the story with his or her own biases and interests?
3. Character refers to the qualities assigned to the individual figures in the plot. Consider
why the author assigns certain qualities to a character or characters and how any such
qualities might relate to your topic. For example, a discussion of Victor Frankensteins
education might take into account aspects of his character that appear to be developed (or
underdeveloped) by the particular kind of education he undertakes. Victor tends to be
ambitious, even compulsive about his studies, and I might be able to argue that his
tendency to be extravagant leads him to devote his own education to writers who asserted
grand, if questionable, conclusions.
4. Setting is the context in which all of the actions take place. What is the time period,
the location, the time of day, the season, the weather, the type of room or building? What
is the general mood, and who is present? All of these elements can reflect on the storys
events, and though the setting of a story tends to be less conspicuous than plot and
character, setting still colors everything thats said and done within its context. If Victor
Frankenstein does all of his experiments in "a solitary chamber, or rather a cell, at the top
of the house, and separated from all the other apartments by a staircase" (53) we might
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conclude that there is something anti-social, isolated, and stale, maybe even unnatural
about his project and his way of learning.
Obviously, if you consider all of these elements, youll probably have too much evidence
to fit effectively into one paper. Your goal is merely to consider each of these aspects of
fiction and include only those that are most relevant to your topic and most interesting to
your reader. A good interpretive paper does not need to cover all elements of the story
plot, genre, narrative form, character, and setting. In fact, a paper that did try to say
something about all of these elements would be unfocused. You might find that most of
your topic could be supported by a consideration of character alone. Thats fine. For my
Frankenstein paper, Im finding that my evidence largely has to do with the setting,
evidence that could lead to some interesting conclusions that my reader probably hasnt
recognized on his or her own.

F. Avoiding Pitfalls
An important part of becoming a good critical writer is breaking away from some of the
assumptions about critical writing that we all tend to develop in high school.
These four common assumptions about writing about fiction interfere with rather than
help the writer. Learn to avoid them.
1. Plot Summary Syndrome
Assumes that the main task is simply recalling what happened in detail. Plot summary is
just one of the (less important) aspects of writing about fiction, not the intended goal.
See Part Two, Section II of this booklet (the section is called Close Reading) for more
on the difference between summary and critical analysis.
2. Right Answer Roulette
Assumes that writing about fiction is a "no win" game in which the student writer is
forced to try to guess the RIGHT ANSWER that only the professor knows.
3. The "Everything is Subjective" Shuffle
Assumes that ANY interpretation of any literary piece is purely whimsy or personal taste.
It ignores the necessity of testing each part of an interpretation against the whole text, as
well as the need to validate each idea by reference to specifics from the text or quotations
and discussion from the text.
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4. The "How Can You Write Three to Five Pages About One Short Story?" Blues
Assumes that writing the paper is only a way of stating the answer rather than an
opportunity to explore an idea or explain what your own ideas are and why you have
them. This sometimes leads to "padding," repeating the same idea in different words or
worse, indiscriminate "expert" quoting: using too many quotes or quotes that are too long
with little or no discussion.
V. Higher Order Thinking
A. Significance and the So What Question.
Avoid writing a paper that only identifies a pattern in a story, but doesnt quite explain
why that pattern leads to an interesting interpretation. Identifying the biblical references
in Frankenstein might provide a good start to a paperMary Shelley does use a lot of
biblical allusionsbut a good paper will also tell the reader why those references are
meaningful. Identifying a pattern alone simply wont reward your reader, or yourself for
that matter. So what makes an interesting paper topic? Simply put, it has to address issues
that we can use in our own lives, and that are interesting to a general audience of
scholarly readers. Your thesis should be able to answer the brutal question "So what?"
Some categories, like race, gender, and social class, are dependable sources of interest
these days. This is not to say that all good papers necessarily deal with one of these
issues. Still, a lot of readers would probably be less interested in reading a paper that
traces the instances of food imagery in a novel than in reading a paper that compares
male or female stereotypes used in a story or one that takes a close look at the way an
African-American or an Indian character is perceived by the other characters.
The main idea here is that you ask yourself whether the topic youve selected connects
with a major intellectual concern. Whats at stake for you, and for other scholars, in what
youre thinking/writing about? The possibilities, at this stage in the game, are endless.
This is where your intellectual creativity gets to come alive. Where do you want to take
your reader? What idea do you really want to explore in more detail? What uncharted
territory do you want your reader to explore with you? The goal is to combine analytical
rigor with critical creativity: you cant just write about anythingcritical writing is not
fiction writingbut is, most certainly, creative writing. Unfortunately, most students
only think of creative writing as fiction writing. They dont ever stop to explore the
possibilities for creative non-fiction. Good critical writing requires as much invention as
any form of creative writing; however, it also requires invention to be guided by the
standards of analytical rigor: methodical logic, careful argumentation, and generous
16
follow-through. Again, the good news here is that your options are virtually without
limit. You might use your analysis of a text to make a foray into thinking about:
Economics
Family Dynamics
Education
Religion
Law
Politics
Sexuality
History
Psychology
Race
Gender
Class
Nationhood
Dont assume that as long as you address one of these issues, your paper will be
interesting. You need to address these big topics in a complex way. Doing this requires
that you dont go into a topic with a preconceived notion of what youll find. Be
prepared, for example, to challenge your own ideas about what gender, race, or class
mean in a particular text.
You should, in some respects, begin to think of yourself as a philosopher when you are
writing critical papers. Dont be afraid to take up abstract questions that feel more
theoretical than concrete. The art of critical writing involves using concrete examples
from a particular text to move convincingly into open intellectual territory. Good critical
writers develop ways to lead their readers from the immediate concerns of a novel or
story to larger, heavy-hitting intellectual questions that can galvanize readers and really
get them thinking about the big picture.
So, you might be wondering, how can I articulate my own big picture for my readers?
Read the next section to find out one important way to begin!
Original Source: UNC Writing Center, Writing About Literature Handout

(http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/literature.html). Significant additions by G.
Tomso.
B. Moving from Literal to Abstract Thinking
For young scholars, perhaps the most challengingand thrillingaspect of critical

writing is finding the right angle when writing about a text or artifact. Where, students
often ask, should I begin? What should my first sentence be? Knowing how to begin, or
how to frame, your critical close readings and arguments is one of the great arts of
17
scholarly writing. It can take years to develop this skill, as it involves forming a deep
awareness of how your own intellectual trajectory relates with the broader intellectual
society around you. If youve spent the last three weeks pondering the fine points of a
text, youll need to do quite a bit of work to leave your intellectual microcosm and to
pitch your arguments to readers in ways that will capture and hold their attention.
One powerful way to connect with readers who havent shared your private musings is to
think about how your ideas and close readings tie into larger intellectual debates that can
ultimately stand alone from the text youll be writing about. Lets not call this moving
from a specific topic to a general one (Ill explain why a little bit later), but instead lets
call it moving from a literal topic to an abstract one. For example, lets say your excited
about writing a paper on Washington Irvings 1820 short story The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow. In particular, youre interested in Irvings descriptions of Katrina van Tassel,
the wealthy farmers daughter whom Ichabod Crane is trying to marry, and in
descriptions of Ichabod as a birda cranewho seems to feed on everything in sight.
Irvings narrator calls Katrina a ripe peach, and you notice that Ichabod wants to
consume heras if she were an objectalong with all the other riches of the van Tassel
farm. So, you sit down at your computer and you turn out the following opening lines for
a paper:
Washington Irvings The Legend of Sleepy Hollow describes characters

in great detail. Specifically, Irving portrays Ichabod Crane as a devouring
bird and Katrina van Tassel as a piece of fresh, ripe fruita peachready
for the plucking. Thus, Irving suggests that men are greedy and all-
consuming, and women are objects that are easily manipulated by men.
And youre thinking to yourself: This is really good! I mention specific examples Ill
be analyzing, and I also state a clear thesis about greedy men and objectified women. Im
definitely going to get an A on this paper now! Well, the truth is, while you should
feel proud about having articulated the beginnings of your argument, you still have some
important work to do if you want to make your writing more sophisticated and sell it to
other smart readers. To be honest, a lot of undergraduate writers never really make it
beyond this point, and its a real shame, since they are so close to breaking through to the
next level of critical writing!
Step back from those opening lines on Irving for just a minute and think about how an
educated person who hasnt spent the last several weeks reading Irving would respond if
she/he picked up your paper and started reading it. Better yet, lets say you picked up
the latest issue of a fancy critical journal like American Literature and you read those
lines above. Ugh! youd say, this sounds so simplistic! and youd throw down the
essay and move on with your life. The truth is that those opening lines are simplistic, and
they have the air of a high-school English theme. Theyre simplistic because all they
offer is the rock-bottom basics: author, story, subject, simple argument. Moreover, the
writing itself is a little stilted; it feels forced, as if the author were writing for some
robotic English teacher who was merely checking off a list of basic components in order
to assign a grade. In short, the writing here is very literal: it makes the story itself, not
18
the ideas contained within the essay, the most important reason for writing.
Understanding this difference makes ALL the difference in the world when it comes to
critical writing. It is crucial that you break away from the book report mentality when
you are mastering the art of critical writing. Part of breaking away from this mentality is
learning the difference between summary and argumentation (as explained in Part Two,
Section II) of this booklet; but equally important is learning how to express your
arguments in ways that dont force them to hide behind stilted and limiting prose that still
sounds like the 500-word themes you wrote in high school. Just because youre
writing about a text doesnt mean that you cant frame that writing in a way that brings
your ideas and your own prose style to the forefront.
One way to make those opening lines about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow more
appealing to readers, and more sophisticated in their argumentation, is to rewrite them
from a more abstract point of view. Reread the lines again, and then step back once
more and ask yourself whats really being discussed here. Remember, as you ask
yourself this question, avoid the literal answer which is, of course, Irvings story The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Avoid, too, the equally literal answer of how Irving
portrays his characters. Both of these answers are limiting in that they dont really get
beyond the I must report on this text mentality. Instead, wouldnt it be fair to say that
whats being introduced by these opening lines is an essay on gender roles? Thats
right, whether you meant to sound like a feminist theorist or not, youve actually written
lines that point to how Irvings text can teach us something (you dont quite say what yet)
about how gender roles function in American society. The next step in writing this
critical essay would be to develop a specific series of statements about how our thinking
about gender is put into play by the story. These sentences should have the specificity of
the early ones, but they should be about your abstract topicgender rolesand not your
literal topic, Irvings story. Its important here not to confuse abstract with general. You
still need to write about specifics, but you can do so in an abstract way that wont bore
your readers!
So, at last, consider the following new introduction to the essay on Sleepy Hollow:
If all knowledge about what gender is were to be based on Washington

Irvings short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, it might seem as if
gender were a fixed and highly rigid personal quality, one that doomed
people, much like fate, to live out a specific course in life. Irvings
consuming men, embodied most strikingly in the figure of Ichabod Crane,
and his consumable women, represented by Katrina van Tassel, suggest
that gender is not only fixed, but tied to the imperatives of capitalism:
masculinity is defined by its desire to consume, and femininity by its
ability to satiate that desire.
The differences between these opening lines and the earlier ones is rather striking, isnt
it? And yet, both introductions address the very same issues. In the latter one, however,
the writing is much more powerful because it employs specific yet abstract claims to
frame a discussion of Irvings story.
19
One important thing to notice here is that the move to an abstract presentation of the topic
required the introduction of a new idea, the imperatives of capitalism. Dont be afraid,
when thinking about your own ideas abstractly, to pursue connections to other ideas that
may cross your mind. Often, in moving to the abstract level of presentation, you make
the essential intellectual connections that help you grasp your own big picture ideas. In
fact, the move to the abstract is precisely an attempt to grasp these ideasto see how one
seemingly isolated part of a storylike the description of a character as a bird or a piece
of fruitis actually an important point of entry for thinking about meaty topics, like
capitalism and gender roles.
20
Part Two: The Practice of Critical Writing

21
I. Thesis Statements
A thesis is the statement of your argument. All critical writing must have a specific,
detailed thesis statement that reveals your perspective, and, like any good argument, your
perspective must be one which is debatable. (OWL)
A. Dos and Donts
In crafting a thesis statement, you would not want to make an argument of this sort:
Shakespeares Hamlet is a play about a young man who seeks revenge.
That doesnt say anythingits basically just a summary and is hardly debatable. A better,
though not ideal, thesis would be this:
Hamlet experiences internal conflict because he is in love with his mother.
That is debatable, controversial even. The rest of a paper with this argument as its thesis
will be an attempt to show, using specific examples from the text and evidence from
scholars, (1) how Hamlet is in love with his mother, (2) why hes in love with her, and (3)
what implications there are for reading the play in this manner. The reason this thesis
isnt ideal, however, is that it doesnt offer an answer to the so what question. Why
should anyone care that Hamlets internal conflict is a result of his love for his mother?
If you can answer this question, youll have a great thesis.
You also want to avoid a thesis statement like this:
Spirituality means different things to different people. King Lear, The book of
Romans, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance each view the spirit
differently.
Again, that says nothing thats not already self-evident. Why bother writing a paper about
that? Youre not writing an essay to list works that have nothing in common other than a
general topic like "spirituality." You want to find certain works or authors that, while
they may have several differences, do have some specific, unifying point. That point is
your thesis.
A better thesis would be this:
Lear, Romans, and Zen each view the soul as the center of human personality.
22
Then you prove it, using examples from the texts that show that the soul is the center of
personality.
B. More Dos and Donts
A thesis is never a question. Readers of academic essays expect to have questions

discussed, explored, or even answered. A question ("Why did communism collapse in
Eastern Europe?") is not an argument, and without an argument, a thesis is dead in the
water.
A thesis is never a list. "For political, economic, social, and cultural reasons, communism
collapsed in Eastern Europe" does a good job of "telegraphing" the reader what to expect
in the essaya section about political reasons, a section about economic reasons, a
section about social reasons, and a section about cultural reasons. However, political,
economic, social and cultural reasons are pretty much the only possible reasons why
communism could collapse. This sentence lacks tension and doesn't advance an
argument. Everyone knows that politics, economics, and culture are important.
A thesis should never be vague, combative, or confrontational. An ineffective thesis

would be, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because communism is evil." This
is hard to argue (Evil from whose perspective? What does evil mean?), and it is likely to
mark you as moralistic and judgmental rather than rational and thorough. It also may
spark a defensive reaction from readers sympathetic to communism. If readers strongly
disagree with you right off the bat, they may stop reading.
An effective thesis has a definable, arguable claim. "While cultural forces contributed to
the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the disintegration of economies played the
key role in driving its decline" is an effective thesis sentence that "telegraphs," so that the
reader expects the essay to have a section about cultural forces and another about the
disintegration of economies. This thesis makes a definite, arguable claim: that the
disintegration of economies played a more important role than cultural forces in defeating
communism in Eastern Europe. The reader would react to this statement by thinking,
"Perhaps what the author says is true, but I am not convinced. I want to read further to
see how the author argues this claim."
A thesis should be as clear and specific as possible. Avoid overused, general terms and
abstractions. For example, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because of the
ruling elite's inability to address the economic concerns of the people" is more powerful
than "Communism collapsed due to societal discontent."
23
Source: Writing Center at Harvard, author Maxine Rodburg

(http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/Thesis.html)
24
C. Word Choice and Thesis Writing
One of the most common problems with writing good thesis sentences is finding the
words or phrases that best capture both the important elements and the significance of the
essay's argument. It is not always easy to summarize several paragraphs or several pages
into concise key terms that, when combined in one sentence, can effectively describe the
argument. But finding the right words offers writers a significant edge in the clarity and
organization of their arguments. Concise and appropriate terms will help both the writer
and the reader keep track of what the essay will show, and how it will show it. Graders,
in particular, like to see clearly stated thesis statements.
Let's look at one example: You've been assigned to write an essay that contrasts the river
and shore scenes in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Your first effort at a thesis is this:
There are many important river and shore scenes in Huckleberry Finn.
The problem with this thesis statement can be put in terms of word choice. The word
"important"-like "interesting"-is both overused and vague; it suggests that the author has
an opinion but gives very little indication about the framework of that opinion. As a result
the sentence gives your reader almost no idea what the essay is going to argue. She
knows you're going to talk about river and shore scenes, but not what you're going to say.
So you give it another try:
The contrasting river and shore scenes in Huckleberry Finn suggest a return to nature.
In terms of word choice, this is an improvement in one regard: through a more vivid
choice of words-"return to nature"- your reader has a better idea of where the paper is
headed. On the other hand, she still does not know how this return to nature is crucial to
your understanding of the novel. So, after several more drafts and revisions, you arrive at
the following thesis statement:
The contrasting river and shore scenes in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn suggest that to
find American democratic ideals, one should return to nature.
This is a strong thesis because it offers a sophisticated argument, and because the key
terms it uses to make this argument are clear. By saying that the contrast between the
river and shore scenes shows that a return to nature will help recover American
democratic ideals creates at least three key terms: the contrast between river and shore
scenes, a return to nature, and American democratic ideals. By itself, each key term is
merely a topic-an element of the argument but not the argument itself (as we've seen in
the first two examples above).
The argument, then, becomes clear to the reader through the way in which you combine
key terms. In this case, the essay will contrast river and shore scenes to show that they
suggest the recovery of American democratic ideals through a return to nature. While one
can certainly write a good argument on the river and shore scenes without such clearly
25
defined key terms, it will be easier to follow the construction of the argument by using
these or other equally concise terms.
In other words, repetition can be good. You can continue to reemphasize the argument by
using the key terms in your topic sentences. This kind of repetition can give your paper
cohesion. (Whereas repeating the same point over and over again can give your reader
narcolepsy.)
Source: UNC Writing Center, Word Choice/Wordiness Handout

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/word_choice.html
II. Close Reading
Close reading is the heart and soul of all academic writing in the humanities. Without
close reading, our arguments would have neither evidence nor persuasive argument.
During close reading, you engage with very specific parts of a text and dazzle your reader
with your interpretive ability.
A. Close Reading Defined
When you close read, you observe facts and details about the text. You may focus on a
particular passage, or on the text as a whole. Your aim may be to notice all striking
features of the text, including rhetorical features, structural elements, and cultural
references; or, your aim may be to notice only selected features of the textfor instance,
oppositions and correspondences, or particular historical references. Either way, making
these observations constitutes the first step in the process of close reading.
The second step is interpreting your observations. What we're basically talking about here
is inductive reasoning: moving from the observation of particular facts and details to a
conclusion, or interpretation, based on those observations. And, as with inductive
reasoning, close reading requires careful gathering of data (your observations) and careful
thinking about what these data add up to.
B. How to Close Read: Lesson One
1. Read with a pencil in hand, and annotate the text.
"Annotating" means underlining or highlighting key words and phrasesanything that

strikes you as surprising or significant, or that raises questionsas well as making notes
in the margins. When we respond to a text in this way, we not only force ourselves to pay
close attention, but we also begin to think with the author about the evidencethe first
step in moving from reader to writer.
26
Here's a sample passage by anthropologist and naturalist Loren Eiseley. It's from his
essay called "The Hidden Teacher."
. . . I once received an unexpected lesson from a spider. It happened far away on a rainy
morning in the West. I had come up a long gulch looking for fossils, and there, just at eye
level, lurked a huge yellow-and-black orb spider, whose web was moored to the tall
spears of buffalo grass at the edge of the arroyo. It was her universe, and her senses did
not extend beyond the lines and spokes of the great wheel she inhabited. Her extended
claws could feel every vibration throughout that delicate structure. She knew the tug of
wind, the fall of a raindrop, the flutter of a trapped moth's wing. Down one spoke of the
web ran a stout ribbon of gossamer on which she could hurry out to investigate her prey.
Curious, I took a pencil from my pocket and touched a strand of the web. Immediately
there was a response. The web, plucked by its menacing occupant, began to vibrate until
it was a blur. Anything that had brushed claw or wing against that amazing snare would
be thoroughly entrapped. As the vibrations slowed, I could see the owner fingering her
guidelines for signs of struggle. A pencil point was an intrusion into this universe for
which no precedent existed. Spider was circumscribed by spider ideas; its universe was
spider universe. All outside was irrational, extraneous, at best raw material for spider. As
I proceeded on my way along the gully, like a vast impossible shadow, I realized that in
the world of spider I did not exist.
2. Look for patterns in the things you've noticed about the text--repetitions,
contradictions, similarities.
What do we notice in the previous passage? First, Eiseley tells us that the orb spider
taught him a lesson, thus inviting us to consider what that lesson might be. But we'll let
that larger question go for now and focus on particularswe're working inductively. In
Eiseley's next sentence, we find that this encounter "happened far away on a rainy
morning in the West." This opening locates us in another time, another place, and has
echoes of the traditional fairy tale opening: "Once upon a time . . .". What does this
mean? Why would Eiseley want to remind us of tales and myth? We don't know yet, but
it's curious. We make a note of it.
Details of language convince us of our location "in the West"gulch, arroyo, and buffalo
grass. Beyond that, though, Eiseley calls the spider's web "her universe" and "the great
wheel she inhabited," as in the great wheel of the heavens, the galaxies. By metaphor,
then, the web becomes the universe, "spider universe." And the spider, "she," whose
"senses did not extend beyond" her universe, knows "the flutter of a trapped moth's wing"
and hurries "to investigate her prey." Eiseley says he could see her "fingering her
guidelines for signs of struggle." These details of language, and others, characterize the
"owner" of the web as thinking, feeling, strivinga creature much like ourselves. But so
what?
27
3. Ask questions about the patterns you've noticedespecially how and why.
To answer some of our own questions, we have to look back at the text and see what else
is going on. For instance, when Eiseley touches the web with his pencil pointan event
"for which no precedent existed"the spider, naturally, can make no sense of the pencil
phenomenon: "Spider was circumscribed by spider ideas." Of course, spiders don't have
ideas, but we do. And if we start seeing this passage in human terms, seeing the spider's
situation in "her universe" as analogous to our situation in our universe (which we think
of as the universe), then we may decide that Eiseley is suggesting that our universe (the
universe) is also finite, that our ideas are circumscribed, and that beyond the limits of our
universe there might be phenomena as fully beyond our ken as Eiseley himselfthat
"vast impossible shadow"was beyond the understanding of the spider.
But why vast and impossible, why a shadow? Does Eiseley mean God, extra-terrestrials?
Or something else, something we cannot name or even imagine? Is this the lesson? Now
we see that the sense of tale telling or myth at the start of the passage, plus this reference
to something vast and unseen, weighs against a simple E.T. sort of interpretation. And
though the spider can't explain, or even apprehend, Eiseley's pencil point, that pencil
point is explainablerational after all. So maybe not God. We need more evidence, so
we go back to the textthe whole essay now, not just this one passageand look for
additional clues. And as we proceed in this way, paying close attention to the evidence,
asking questions, formulating interpretations, we engage in a process that is central to
essay writing and to the whole academic enterprise: in other words, we reason toward our
own ideas.
Source: Writing Center at Harvard, author Patricia Kain

(http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/CloseReading.html)
C. How to Close Read: Lesson Two: Plot Summary vs. Analysis
Heres a passage from Joseph Conrads 1899 novel, Heart of Darkness, a story about the
presence of European colonizers in the Congo region of West Africa:
I began to feel slightly uneasy. You know I am not used to such

ceremonies, and there was something ominous in the atmosphere. It was
just as though I had been let into some conspiracyI dont know
something not quite right; and I was glad to get out. In the outer room the
two women knitted black wool feverishly. People were arriving, and the
younger one was walking back and forth introducing them. The old one
sat on her chair. Her flat cloth slippers were propped up on a foot-warmer,
and a cat reposed on her lap. She wore a starched white affair on her head,
had a wart on one cheek, and silver-rimmed spectacles hung on the tip of
her nose. She glanced at me above the glasses. The swift and indifferent
28
placidity of that look troubled me. Two youths with foolish and cheery
countenances were being piloted over, and she threw at them the same
quick glance of unconcerned wisdom. She seemed to know all about them
and about me too. An eerie feeling came over me. She seemed uncanny
and fateful. Often far away there I thought of these two, guarding the door
of Darkness, knitting black wool as for a warm pall, one introducing,
introducing continuously to the unknown, the other scrutinizing the cheery
and foolish faces with unconcerned old eyes. Ave! Old knitter of black
wool. Morituri te salutant. Not many of those she looked at ever saw her
againnot half, by a long way. (25)
Now heres a summary of the passage from Conrads novel:
This scene occurs towards the beginning of Book I and describes Marlowes
encounter with the company hell be working for in the Congo.
Marlowe immediately feels uneasy when he walks into the office. He is not
exactly sure what is the matter, but there is something ominous in the air and a feeling
of conspiracy. There are two strange women, one young and one old, who are knitting
black wool feverishly. They guard the door of Darkness: the younger cheerfully
introducing people into the unknown, and the elder looking at those who enter with
indifference. Marlowe observes that hell often think about these two women when he is
in the Congo, a statement that suggests that the women are important and that Conrad
inserts them into this scene for a reason.
Whats wrong with summarizing?
Nothing is technically wrong with it, its just not what scholars do. The business of
literary studies is analyzing literature and this summary doesnt really do that (not to
mention its pretty boring to read!). It is like reading a Cliff Notes summary of the scene;
it doesnt go beyond the surface of plot level. Summary doesnt do anything in the
sense of illustrating a point or furthering an argument. It does, however, take up space in
student essays. Too much summary means not enough time for analysis and
interpretation.
What if Im trying to analyze, but find I keep summarizing?
The most common reason you might feel compelled to retell a story is because you
havent yet worked through what you think about it. Your analysis may still be in the
percolating stage: you know that a passage is going to be important to your final
argument, but youre just not able to say why.
If you find yourself summarizing:

29
Ask yourself why you are summarizing. What is the point you are trying to
make? What is it about or in this particular scene or passage that is essential for
making an interpretive point?
If you still cant stop summarizing, ask yourself if you really have something
intelligent and interesting to say about the text. Do you really have an argument
yet? (This is a painful but necessary question to ask).
Heres a sample analysis of the passage from Conrad, using several instances of
close reading:
This scene occurs towards the beginning of Book I and describes Marlowes
initial encounter with the company hell be working for in the Congo.
Marlowe immediately feels uneasy when he walks into the office, noting that
there is something ominous in the air and a feeling of conspiracy. This statement is
repeated at the end of the paragraph, in which Marlowe states, An eerie feeling came
over me. The description of the two women at the company office is sandwiched
between these statements, a position that invites the reader to consider that the women
and their behavior and appearance are at least in part responsible for the ominous and
eerie feeling. And indeed, there is something eerie about the women. For one, they
guard the door of Darkness. While the meaning of darkness constantly shifts
throughout the novel, here the capitalization of the word (which happens infrequently)
suggests that the women are guarding the entrance to a particular placeperhaps
metaphorically hell? Certainly they are associated with death in this passage. They are
described as knitting black wool as if for a pall, a fabric draped over a coffin. Given
the continuous way in which Conrad employs black and white imagery in this novel, it is
undoubtedly significant that the object they are knitting is made of black wool. Black
wool is repeated three times in this paragraph and appears on the previous page as well.
The sense in this passage is that the women are not only guarding the door of Darkness,
but also constructing the darkness itself through their feverish knitting.
Two pages later the reader is told, Its queer how out of touch with truth women
are (27). As the novel unfolds we do see some out of touch women, including the aunt
and, perhaps most notably, Kurtzs Intended. But in this passage it seems as if these
women are anything but out of touch. Rather, the older woman in particular seems to
possess a keen awareness of what is about to happen to those who join the company:
she threw at them the same quick glance of unconcerned wisdom. She seemed to know
all about them and about me too. An eerie feeling came over me. She seemed uncanny
and fateful. This unconcerned wisdom, which provokes uneasiness in Marlowe, does
not give the reader the impression that these women are out of touch. Instead, they are
much like the station manager who has a genius for producing unease (37) or the
Accountant, who is unconcerned about those suffering around him. Thus, while Marlowe
implies that women are out of touchthat they really dont understand what is actually
happening around themthis passage makes them seem as much part of the colonial
machinery as are the men that the narrator describes.
30
Further support for this reading can be found towards the end of the novella, when
the knitting women appear at a seeming incongruous moment. Marlowe is in the process
of hunting down Kurtz and suddenly, as he comes upon him on all-fours, he recalls the
old woman he saw at the beginning of the novel: The knitting old woman with the cat
obtruded herself upon my memory as a most improper person to be sitting at the other
end of such an affair (81). Marlowe is somewhat dismissive of this thought, calling it
imbecilic (81), but I would suggest that the old womans sudden appearance makes
complete sense. While the narrator suggests that women are out of touch, this passage
demonstrates that they are anything butthat they are implicated right from the
beginning in the colonial project. As the narrator goes on to tell the reader, the reason for
the lie, the idea that sustains colonialism, is that women are too fragile to accept reality.
In actuality, the novel projects onto women responsibility for the unchecked expansion
and the atrocities that happen, even though greed and economic motivations are as much
(if not more) the root cause. In a sense, the novel makes women the knitters in the
fabric of colonialism.
Things to Keep in Mind
The point isnt whether one analysis is right or wrong, but rather whether a
reading is sustainable given the evidence you provide. This example is meant to
give you a sense of just how much one can do with a passage.
You only have a limited amount of time and space to discuss something and you
dont want to waste it quoting a part of the text that youre not going to say
anything about. When you quote from a text, ask yourself these questions:
1. Why am I quoting here?

2. Am I trying to illustrate a point, demonstrate something, etc?
3. Have I made it clear to the reader how, exactly, the quotation does this
(that is, have I taken my reader through my logic)?
4. Do I quote and run, or do I take the time to take my reader through the
quotation under discussion, showing the reader how my quotation
illustrates or furthers my point?
If you arent really adding any interpretive comments to a quotethat is, if youre
not really doing anything with it (proving, illustrating, demonstrating,
suggesting, arguing)then the quote doesnt belong in youre essay.
Lesson Two courtesy of Diane Cady, Ph.D., Saint Johns University, New York; edited
by Gregory Tomso.
31
III. Refining Close Readings and Making Them a Part of Your

Larger Argument
The work of formulating a thesis and close reading a text described in sections I and II
above will most likely take place simultaneously. Rarely do we write or think in ways
that be fully explained in outline form. However, once you have a tentative thesis and
you know which parts of a text you want to read closely, you can refine your close
reading work by making even more careful choices about which parts of a text youll be
analyzing and interpreting. For instance, you can also decide how much time to spend
sharing your close readings with your readers. Will you choose just one passage, or
perhaps two or three? Does one passage need several paragraphs worth of your attention,
while another only needs a sentence or two? Knowing how much attention to give a
passage is crucial in critical writing.
Keep in mind that close reading, as discussed in section II above, means far more than
simply stating evidence or quoting the text. In fact, the interpretive aspect of close
reading is far more essential than merely listing examples or pasting quotations into a
paper. With this fact in mind, choose passages or even smaller portions of a text (a single
line or phrase is often enough) that youll be able to say the most about. Again, readers
tend to be more dazzled with your interpretations of specific language than with a lot of
quotes from the book. Select the details that will allow you to show off your own
reasoning skills and allow you to help the reader see the story in a way he or she may not
have seen it before.
For example, if you were writing a paper on Frankenstein, it might seem interesting to
mention Victor Frankensteins youthful reading in alchemy, but your reader will be more
impressed by some analysis of how these writerswho pursued magical principles of
chemistry and physicsreflect the ambition of his own goals. Merely referring to
something in the text is not enough! You have to make that reference take on meaning
by placing an interpretive framework of your own making around it. In most cases,
interpreting your evidence merely involves putting into your paper what is already in
your head. As Eve Sedgwick once wrote, Its only by risking the obvious that we
happen into the vicinity of the transformative. Remember that we, as readers, are lazy--
all of us. We dont want to have to figure out a writers reasoning for ourselves; we want
all the thinking to be done for us in the paper.
Once you have a clear thesis you can go back to your list of selected elements (passages,
images, specific words or phrases) for close reading and group all the similar details
together. The ideas that tie these clusters of close readings together can then become the
claims that youll make in your paper. As you begin thinking about what claims you can
make (i.e. what kinds of conclusion you can come to), keep in mind that they should not
only relate to your evidence(that is, your close readings) but should clearly support your
thesis as well. Once youre satisfied with the way youve grouped your evidence and with
the way that your claims relate to your thesis, you can begin to consider the most logical
32
way to organize each of those claims. At this stage, some writers find detailed outlines
helpful while others simply group their evidence in a less rigid way and let the finer
points of organization take shape as they write.

(http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/literature.html), additions by G. Tomso
IV. Structuring your Essay

When putting together your paper, here are two crucial considerations to keep in mind:
A. Choose your Examples Carefully, and Limit their Number
Avoid the temptation to load your paper with too many examples of the same idea or too
many passages from your story. If you make a real commitment to close reading, you
wont suffer from this problem too much. One or two thorough close readings is more
than enough to fill up several pages. Pick the very best example for your thesis, offer
your interpretation, and then briefly reference other examples or leave them out
altogether. If you find yourself quoting passages without interpreting them, youre not
taking full advantage of your evidence or demonstrating your reasoning skills.
B. Death to the Five Paragraph Essay!
Avoid, at all costs, the five paragraph essay or keyhole diagram approach to writing
critical essays. The five paragraph essay format you learned in high school encourages
you to repeat three examples of the same point. Who wants that much repetition? Your
goal is to find a more complex structure that fits your particular argument. Dont cram
your ideas into a pre-existing formatdoing so generally leads to a failure of
argumentation! Successful college-level writing requires moving beyond the five
paragraph modelthat means coming up with complex arguments that have real
intellectual significance. If you find yourself writing a typical five paragraph essay
repeating one example after another without really going anywherethen you need to re-
evaluate your thesis to see if it is complex enough to support your time and efforts. (Note:
You might end up writing an essay that has five paragraphs but that doesnt follow the
stultifying format of listing three similar examples for no intelligible reason. Theres
nothing wrong with the number fiveonly with the repeat your example three times in
three separate paragraphs format.)
One unfortunate result of people writing bad five-paragraph essays is that they allow us
to completely avoid two of the most important elements of critical essays: topic sentences
and signposts. Read the next section for more information on both..
V. Structuring Your Argument: Topic Sentences and Signposts

33
Topic sentences and signposts make an essays claims clear to a reader. Good essays
contain both. Topic sentences reveal the main point of a paragraph. They show the
relationship of each paragraph to the essays thesis, telegraph the point of a paragraph,
and tell your reader what to expect in the paragraph that follows. Topic sentences also
establish their relevance right away, making clear why the points theyre making are
important to the essays main ideas. They argue rather than report. Signposts, as their
name suggests, prepare the reader for a change in the arguments direction. They show
how far the essays argument has progressed vis-a-vis the claims of the thesis.
Topic sentences and signposts occupy a middle ground in the writing process. They are
neither the first thing a writer needs to address (thesis and the broad strokes of an essays
structure are) nor the last (thats when you attend to sentence-level editing and polishing).
Topic sentences and signposts deliver an essays structure and meaning to a reader, so
they are useful diagnostic tools to the writerthey let you know if your thesis is
arguableand essential guides to the reader.
A. Forms of Topic Sentences
Sometimes topic sentences are actually two or even three sentences long. If the first
makes a claim, the second might reflect on that claim, explaining it further. Think of
these sentences as asking and answering two critical questions: How does the
phenomenon youre discussing operate? Why does it operate as it does?
Theres no set formula for writing a topic sentence. Rather, you should work to vary the
form your topic sentences take. Repeated too often, any method grows wearisome. Here
are a few approaches.
Complex sentences. Topic sentences at the beginning of a paragraph frequently combine

with a transition from the previous paragraph. This might be done by writing a sentence
that contains both subordinate and independent clauses, as in the example below.
Although Young Woman with a Water Pitcher depicts an unknown, middle-class

woman at an ordinary task, the image is more than "realistic"; the painter [Vermeer] has
imposed his own order upon it to strengthen it.
This sentence employs a useful principle of transitions: always move from old to new
information. The subordinate clause (from "although" to "task") recaps information from
previous paragraphs; the independent clauses (starting with "the image" and "the
painter") introduce the new informations claim about how the image works ("more than
realistic") and why it works as it does (Vermeer "strengthens" the image by "imposing
order").
Questions. Questions, sometimes in pairs, also make good topic sentences (and
signposts). Consider the following: "Does the promise of stability justify this unchanging
hierarchy?" We may fairly assume that the paragraph or section that follows will answer
34
the question. Questions are by definition a form of inquiry, and thus demand an answer.
Good essays strive for this forward momentum.
Bridge sentences. Like questions, "bridge sentences" (the term is John Trimbles) make
an excellent substitute for more formal topic sentences. Bridge sentences indicate both
what came before and what comes next (they "bridge" paragraphs) without the formal
trappings of multiple clauses. For example: "But there is a clue to this puzzle."
Pivots. Topic sentences dont always appear at the beginning of a paragraph. When they
come in the middle, they indicate that the paragraph will change direction, or "pivot."
This strategy is particularly useful for dealing with counter-evidence: a paragraph starts
out conceding a point or stating a fact ("Psychologist Sharon Hymer uses the term
narcissistic friendship to describe the early stage of a friendship like the one between
Celie and Shug"); after following up on this initial statement with evidence, it then
reverses direction and establishes a claim ("Yet ... this narcissistic stage of Celie and
Shugs relationship is merely a transitory one. Hymer herself concedes . . . "). The pivot
always needs a signal, a word like "but," "yet," or "however," or a longer phrase or
sentence that indicates an about-face. It often needs more than one sentence to make its
point.
B. Signposts
Signposts operate as topic sentences for whole sections in an essay. (In longer essays,
sections often contain more than a single paragraph.) They inform a reader that the essay
is taking a turn in its argument: delving into a related topic such as a counter-argument,
stepping up its claims with a complication, or pausing to give essential historical or
scholarly background. Because they reveal the architecture of the essay itself, signposts
remind readers of what the essays stakes are: what its about, and why its being written.
Signposting can be accomplished in a sentence or two at the beginning of a paragraph or

in whole paragraphs that serve as transitions between one part of the argument and the
next. The following example comes from an essay examining how a painting by Monet,
The Gare Saint-Lazare: Arrival of a Train, challenges Zolas declarations about
Impressionist art. The student writer wonders whether Monets Impressionism is really as
devoted to avoiding "ideas" in favor of direct sense impressions as Zolas claims would
seem to suggest. This is the start of the essays third section:
It is evident in this painting that Monet found his Gare Saint-Lazare motif fascinating
at the most fundamental level of the play of light as well as the loftiest level of social
relevance. Arrival of a Train explores both extremes of expression. At the fundamental
extreme, Monet satisfies the Impressionist objective of capturing the full-spectrum effects
of light on a scene.
The writer signposts this section in the first sentence, reminding readers of the stakes of
the essay itself with the simultaneous references to sense impression ("play of light") and
35
intellectual content ("social relevance"). The second sentence follows up on this idea,
while the third serves as a topic sentence for the paragraph. The paragraph after that starts
off with a topic sentence about the "cultural message" of the painting, something that the
signposting sentence predicts by not only reminding readers of the essays stakes but
also, and quite clearly, indicating what the section itself will contain.
Without effect signposts, readers will be lost in your essay. There will be little or no
sense of transitioning from one idea or argumentative task to the next. If your professors
frequently write TRANSITION? in the margins of your paper, or between your
paragraphs, you are likely having trouble with signposting and perhaps with writing clear
topic sentences as well.
Source: Writing Center at Harvard, author Elizabeth Abrams

(http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/TopicSentences.html)
C. Some Templates for Beginners
The following templates can help you begin using topic and signpost sentences in your
essays. These templates are obviously a bit clunky, but you can use them until youre
more comfortable with the demanding logic required by critical thinking and writing.
Template Option I
I am analyzing ______A________ in order to argue _________B______________.
An important element of _______B_______ is __________C_______________.
_____C_______ is significant because ___________________________________.
Template Option II
I am analyzing ______A________ in order to argue _________B______________.
In order to complicate our understanding of ______B__________, I will now discuss
______C__________. ____C____ complicates our understanding of _____B______ in
the following ways: ____X____, ______Y_____, _____Z________.

36
VI. Some Strategies for Writing an Effective Introduction
A. When writing an introduction for a critical paper, keep in mind the following maxim:
GIVE AWAY THE STORE! If you were a shopkeeper, this is the last thing youd
want an employee to dohow could you make any money if your employees kept giving
things away? In critical writing, however, you are not subject to the imperatives of a
profit economy, and the best introductions are those that get right to the heart of the
matter and detail for readers exactly what the paper will discuss and how that discussion
will take place. This means stating your thesis, the texts youll be analyzing, the most
important claims made in the body of your essay, the methods youll be using to make
your claims, and the reason youre writing in the first place (i.e., what makes your thesis
important or interesting to a larger, educated audiencethis is the famous so what
question discussed in Part One, Section IV-E above). You dont have to mention all of
this in great detailexcept, of course, for your thesisbut you do need to mention ALL
of these things in an introduction. For some reason, high school teachers often teach
their students to write titillating introductions that never get around to stating the
significance of an argument or anything about its conclusion. This makes absolutely no
sense for busy academics who want to pick up a paper and know immediately what its
about. Critical introductions are not times to hold back! GIVE AWAY THE STORE!
B. Write your introduction last. You may think that you have to write your introduction
first, but that isn't necessarily true, and it isn't always the most effective way to craft a
good introduction. In fact, its virtually impossible to introduce a paper until youve
written it. You may find that you don't know what you are going to argue at the
beginning of the writing process, and only through the experience of writing your paper
and working out your claims and close readings do you discover your main argument. It
is perfectly fine to start out thinking that you want to argue a particular point, but wind up
arguing something slightly or even dramatically different by the time you've written most
of the paper. The writing process can be an important way to organize your ideas, think
through complicated issues, refine your thoughts, and develop a sophisticated argument.
However, an introduction written at the beginning of that discovery process will not
necessarily reflect what you wind up with at the end. You will need to revise your paper
to make sure that the introduction, all of the evidence, and the conclusion reflect the
argument you intend. Sometimes it helps to write up all of your evidence first and then
write the introduction -- that way you can be sure that the introduction matches the body
of the paper. Note: Don't be afraid to write a tentative introduction first and then change
it later. Some people find that they need to write some kind of introduction in order to get
the writing process started. That's fine, but if you are one of those people, be sure to
return to your initial introduction later and rewrite.
C. Just because your introduction has to meet the demands of critical writing, doesnt
mean it has to be artless. The elements mentioned in section A above are the bare
minimum for an introduction. Most good introductions will add other elementsa short,
37
catchy example, for instancethat shows off the papers wares to potentially interested
readers. (Perhaps critical writing does owe something to the demands of the profit
economy after all!)
D. Pay special attention to your first sentence. If any sentence in your paper is going to
be completely free of errors and vagueness, it should be your first one. Start off on the
right foot with your readers by making sure that the first sentence actually says something
useful and that it does so in an interesting and error-free way. Be straightforward and
confident.
E. Five Kinds of Less Effective Introductions
1. The Place Holder Introduction. When you don't have much to say on a given topic, it is
easy to create this kind of introduction. Essentially, this kind of weaker introduction
contains several sentences that are vague and don't really say much. They exist just to
take up the "introduction space" in your paper. If you had something more effective to
say, you would probably say it, but in the meantime this paragraph is just a place holder.
Weak Example: Slavery was one of the greatest tragedies in American history. There
were many different aspects of slavery. Each created different kinds of problems for
enslaved people.
2. The Webster's Dictionary Introduction. This introduction begins by giving the

dictionary definition of one or more of the words crucial to the paper. This introduction
strategy is on the right trackif you write one of these, you may be trying to establish the
important terms of the discussion, and this move builds a bridge to the reader by offering
a common, agreed-upon definition for a key idea. You may also be looking for an
authority that will lend credibility to your paper. However, anyone can look a word up in
the dictionary and copy down what Webster says - it may be far more interesting for you
(and your reader) if you develop your own definition of the term in the specific context of
your class and assignment. Also recognize that the dictionary is also not a particularly
authoritative workit doesn't take into account the context of your course and doesn't
offer particularly detailed information. If you feel that you must seek out an authority, try
to find one that is very relevant and specific. Perhaps a quotation from a source reading
might prove better? Dictionary introductions are also ineffective simply because they are
so overused. Many graders will see twenty or more papers that begin in this way, greatly
decreasing the dramatic impact that any one of those papers will have. You might find a
more creative way to define your terms, or perhaps you could weave a definition into a
more attention-grabbing introductory paragraph.
Weak Example: Webster's dictionary defines slavery as "the state of being a slave," as
"the practice of owning slaves," and as "a condition of hard work and subjection."
3. The Dawn of Man Introduction. This kind of introduction generally makes broad
sweeping statements about the relevance of this topic since the beginning of time. It is
38
usually very general (similar to the place holder introduction) and fails to connect to the
thesis. You may write this kind of introduction when you don't have much to say
which is precisely why it is ineffective.
Weak Example: Since the dawn of man, slavery has been a problem in human history.
4. The Book Report Introduction. This introduction is what you had to do for your fifth-
grade book reports. It gives the name and author of the book you are writing about, tells
what the book is about, and offers other basic facts about the book. You might resort to
this sort of introduction when you are trying to fill space because it's a familiar,
comfortable format. It is ineffective because it offers details that your reader already
knows and that are irrelevant to the thesis.
Weak Example: Frederick Douglass wrote his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, in the 1840s. It was published in 1986 by
Penguin Books. He tells the story of his life.
If you want more advanced help on writing introductions, read Part One, Section V, Part
B of this booklet. Its a section called Moving from Literal to Abstract Thinking.
Source: UNC Writing Center, Introductions handout

(http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/introductions.htm)
VII. Warrants
Warrants are statements that connect claims to evidence or reasons. Stephen Toulmin, a
philosopher and rhetorician, has drawn our attention to the importance of warrants in
making critical arguments. Youd be surprised to learn how many people fail to pay
attention to warrants in their writing. Many writers assume that the link between their
evidence and their claims is clear. All too often, this is far from the case.
To understand warrants, consider the following simple example:
You should eat your vegetables because theyre full of antioxidants.
Claim: You should eat your vegetables.

Reason: Vegetables are full of antioxidants.
Warrant: Food sources high in antioxidants reduce the risk of certain cancers and
promote cardiovascular well-being.
Notice, in this example, the warrant is implied rather than stated directly. In critical
writing, leaving warrants unstated can be risky business. Readers of academic writing
39
want to see your thought process spelled out in front of them. Leaving out your warrants
will often make your argument weaker because readers wont be able to see clearly how
you arrived at your claims; worse yet, they may distrust your claims. As you gain
experience as a writer, you will grow more skilled at knowing when to make your
warrants explicit and when to leave them implicit in your argument. When in doubt, state
your warrants!
Analyzing our warrants provides one useful way of making sure our argumentative logic
is sound. Logic is especially important in critical writing since, unlike some other forms
of writing, critical writing is meant to persuade a highly skeptical audience. Using logic
is an important part of making sure that your argument is rigorousthat it is carefully,
even painstakingly, made.
VIII. Adding Complexity to Your Argument: Working with

Counterarguments
One way to strengthen your argument and show that you have a deep understanding of
the issue you are discussing is to anticipate and address counterarguments or objections.
By considering what someone who disagrees with your position might have to say about
your argument, you show that you have thought things through, and you dispose of some
of the reasons your audience might have for not accepting your argument. Imagine youre
writing an argument about student seating in a major university sports stadium. To make
the most effective argument possible, you should consider not only what students would
say about seating, but also what alumni who have paid a lot to get good seats might say
about the issue. You can generate counterarguments by asking yourself what someone
who disagrees with you might say about each of the points you've made or about your
position as a whole. Consider the conclusion and the premises of your argument, and
imagine someone who denies each of them. Then you can see which of these arguments
are most worth considering. For example, if you argued "Cats make the best pets. This is
because they are clean and independent," you might imagine someone saying "Cats do
not make the best pets. They are dirty and needy." Once you have thought up some
counterarguments, consider how you will respond to themwill you concede that your
opponent has a point but explain why your audience should nonetheless accept your
argument? Will you reject the counterargument and explain why it is mistaken? Either
way, you will want to leave your reader with a sense that your argument is stronger than
opposing arguments.
When you are summarizing opposing arguments, be charitable. Present each argument
fairly and objectively, rather than trying to make it look foolish. You want to show that
you have seriously considered the many sides of the issue, and that you are not simply
attacking or caricaturing your opponents. Also, it is usually better to consider one or two
serious counterarguments in some depth, rather than to give a long but superficial list of
many different counterarguments and replies. Finally, be sure that your reply is
40
consistent with your original argument. If considering a counterargument changes your

position, you will need to go back and revise your original argument accordingly.
Source: UNC Writing Center, Effective Academic Writing: The Argument handout
(http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/argument.html)
Heres another example from Maxine Rodburg at Harvard:
Every argument has a counter-argument. If yours doesn't, then it's not an argumentit
may be a fact, or an opinion, but it is not an argument. Consider the following statement:
Michael Dukakis lost the 1988 presidential election because he failed to campaign
vigorously after the Democratic National Convention.
This statement is on its way to being a thesis. However, it is too easy to imagine possible
counterarguments. For example, a political observer might believe that Dukakis lost
because he suffered from a "soft-on-crime" image. If you complicate your thesis by
anticipating the counter-argument, you'll strengthen your argument, as shown in the
sentence below:
While Dukakis' "soft-on-crime" image hurt his chances in the 1988 election, his failure to
campaign vigorously after the Democratic National Convention bore a greater
responsibility for his defeat.
Source: Writing Center at Harvard

(http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/Thesis.html)
IX. Using Logic to Strengthen Your Critical Argument:

Understanding and Avoiding Fallacies
Like warrants and counterarguments, logical fallacies are useful to think about when
making arguments. Understanding a few of the most common logical fallacies is part of
building a foundation in strong logic that will serve you well as a writer.
Fallacies are defects that weaken arguments. By learning to look for them in your own
and others' writing, you can strengthen your ability to evaluate the arguments you make,
read, and hear. It is important to realize two things about fallacies: first, fallacious
arguments are very, very common and can be quite persuasive, at least to the causal
reader or listener. You can find dozens of examples of fallacious reasoning in
newspapers, advertisements, and other sources. Second, it is sometimes hard to evaluate
whether an argument is fallacious. An argument might be very weak, somewhat weak,
somewhat strong, or very strong. An argument that has several stages or parts might have
some strong sections and some weak ones. The goal is to look critically at your own
arguments and move them away from the "weak" and toward the "strong" end of the
continuum.
41
So what do fallacies look like?
Here are a few of the most commonthey show up in student papers all the time.
A. Hasty generalization
Definition: Making assumptions about a whole group or range of cases based on a sample
that is inadequate (usually because it is atypical or just too small). Stereotypes about
people ("frat boys are drunkards," "grad students are nerdy," etc.) are a common example
of the principle underlying hasty generalization.
Example: "My roommate said her philosophy class was hard, and the one I'm in is hard,
too. All philosophy classes must be hard!"
Two people's experiences are, in this case, not enough on which to base a conclusion.
Tip: Ask yourself what kind of "sample" you're using: Are you relying on the opinions or
experiences of just a few people, or your own experience in just a few situations? If so,
consider whether you need more evidence, or perhaps a less sweeping conclusion.
(Notice that in the example, the more modest conclusion "Some philosophy classes are
hard for some students" would not be a hasty generalization.)
B. Slippery slope
Definition: The arguer claims that a sort of chain reaction, usually ending in some dire
consequence, will take place, but there's really not enough evidence for that assumption.
The arguer asserts that if we take even one step onto the "slippery slope," we will end up
sliding all the way to the bottom; he or she assumes we can't stop halfway down the hill.
Example: "Animal experimentation reduces our respect for life. If we don't respect life,
we are likely to be more and more tolerant of violent acts like war and murder. Soon our
society will become a battlefield in which everyone constantly fears for their lives. It will
be the end of civilization. To prevent this terrible consequence, we should make animal
experimentation illegal right now."
Since animal experimentation has been legal for some time and civilization has not yet
ended, it seems particularly clear that this chain of events won't necessarily take place.
Even if we believe that experimenting on animals reduces respect for life, and loss of
respect for life makes us more tolerant of violence, that may be the spot on the hillside at
which things stopwe may not slide all the way down to the end of civilization. And so
we have not yet been given sufficient reason to accept the arguer's conclusion that we
must make animal experimentation illegal right now.
42
Slippery slope can be a tricky fallacy to identify, since sometimes a chain of events really
can be predicted to follow from a certain action. Here's an example that doesn't seem
fallacious: "If I fail my swim test, I won't be able to graduate. If I don't graduate, I
probably won't be able to get a good job, and I may very well end up doing temp work or
flipping burgers for the next year."
Tip: Check your argument for chains of consequences, where you say "if A, then B, and
if B, then C," and so forth. Make sure these chains are reasonable.
C. Weak analogy
Definition: Many arguments rely on an analogy between two or more objects, ideas, or
situations. If the two things that are being compared aren't really alike in the relevant
respects, the analogy is a weak one, and the argument that relies on it commits the fallacy
of weak analogy.
Example: "Guns are like hammersthey're both tools with metal parts that could be used
to kill someone. And yet it would be ridiculous to restrict the purchase of hammersso
restrictions on purchasing guns are equally ridiculous."
While guns and hammers do share certain features, these features (having metal parts,
being tools, and being potentially useful for violence) are not the ones at stake in deciding
whether to restrict guns. Rather, we restrict guns because they can easily be used to kill
large numbers of people at a distance. This is a feature hammers do not shareit'd be
hard to kill a crowd with a hammer. Thus, the analogy is weak, and so is the argument
based on it.
If you think about it, you can make an analogy of some kind between almost any two
things in the world: "My paper is like a mud puddle because they both get bigger when it
rains (I work more when I'm stuck inside) and they're both kind of murky." So the mere
fact that you draw an analogy between two things doesn't prove much, by itself.
Arguments by analogy are often used in discussing abortionarguers frequently compare

fetuses with adult human beings, and then argue that treatment that would violate the
rights of an adult human being also violates the rights of fetuses. Whether these
arguments are good or not depends on the strength of the analogy: Do adult humans and
fetuses share the property that gives adult humans rights? If the property that matters is
having a human genetic code or the potential for a life full of human experiences, adult
humans and fetuses do share that property, so the argument and the analogy are strong; if
the property is being self-aware, rational, or able to survive on one's own, adult humans
and fetuses don't share it, and the analogy is weak.
Tip: Identify what properties are important to the claim you're making, and see whether
the two things you're comparing both share those properties.
43
D. Appeal to authority
Definition: Often we add strength to our arguments by referring to respected sources or

authorities and explaining their positions on the issues we're discussing. If, however, we
try to get readers to agree with us simply by impressing them with a famous name or by
appealing to a supposed authority who really isn't much of an expert, we commit the
fallacy of appeal to authority.
Example: "We should abolish the death penalty. Many respected people, such as actor
Guy Handsome, have publicly stated their opposition to it."
While Guy Handsome may be an authority on matters having to do with acting, there's no
particular reason why anyone should be moved by his political opinionshe is probably
no more of an authority on the death penalty than the person writing the paper.
Tip: There are two easy ways to avoid committing appeal to authority: first, make sure
that the authorities you cite are experts on the subject you're discussing. Second, rather
than just saying "Dr. Authority believes x, so we should believe it, too," try to explain the
reasoning or evidence that the authority used to arrive at his or her opinion. That way,
your readers have more to go on than a person's reputation. It also helps to choose
authorities who are perceived as fairly neutral or reasonable, rather than people who will
be perceived as biased.
E. Ad populum
Definition: The Latin name of this fallacy means "to the people." There are several
versions of the ad populum fallacy, but what they all have in common is that in them, the
arguer takes advantage of the desire most people have to be liked and to fit in with others
and uses that desire to try to get the audience to accept his or her argument. One of the
most common versions is the bandwagon fallacy, in which the arguer tries to convince
the audience to do or believe something because everyone else (supposedly) does.
Example: "Gay marriages are just immoral. 70% of Americans think so!" While the
opinion of most Americans might be relevant in determining what laws we should have,
it certainly doesn't determine what is moral or immoral: there was a time where a
substantial number of Americans were in favor of segregation, but their opinion was not
evidence that segregation was moral. The arguer is trying to get us to agree with the
conclusion by appealing to our desire to fit in with other Americans.
Tip: Make sure that you aren't recommending that your audience believe your conclusion
because everyone else believes it, all the cool people believe it, people will like you
better if you believe it, and so forth. Keep in mind that the popular opinion is not always
the right one!
F. Ad hominem and tu quoque

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Definitions: Like the appeal to authority and ad populum fallacies, the ad hominem
("against the person") and tu quoque ("you, too!") fallacies focus our attention on people
rather than on arguments or evidence. In both of these arguments, the conclusion is
usually "You shouldn't believe So-and-So's argument." The reason for not believing So-
and-So is that So-and-So is either a bad person (ad hominem) or a hypocrite (tu quoque).
In an ad hominem argument, the arguer attacks his or her opponent instead of the
opponent's argument.
Example: "Andrea Dworkin has written several books arguing that pornography harms
women. But Dworkin is an ugly, bitter person, so you shouldn't listen to her."
Dworkin's appearance and character, which the arguer has characterized so ungenerously,
have nothing to do with the strength of her V argument, so using them as evidence is
fallacious.
In a tu quoque argument, the arguer points out that the opponent has actually done the
thing he or she is arguing against, and so the opponent's argument shouldn't be listened
to.
Example: Imagine that your parents have explained to you why you shouldn't smoke, and
they've given a lot of good reasonsthe damage to your health, the cost, and so forth.
You reply, "I won't accept your argument, because you used to smoke when you were my
age. You did it, too!" The fact that your parents have done the thing they are condemning
has no bearing on the premises they put forward in their argument (smoking harms your
health and is very expensive), so your response is fallacious.
Tip: Be sure to stay focused on your opponents' reasoning, rather than on their personal
character. (The exception to this is, of course, if you are making an argument about
someone's characterif your conclusion is "The President is an untrustworthy person,"
premises about his untrustworthy acts are relevant, not fallacious.)
G. Appeal to ignorance
Definition: In the appeal to ignorance, the arguer basically says, "Look, there's no
conclusive evidence on the issue at hand. Therefore, you should accept my conclusion on
this issue."
Example: "People have been trying for centuries to prove that God exists. But no one has
yet been able to prove it. Therefore, God does not exist." Here's an opposing argument
that commits the same fallacy: "People have been trying for years to prove that God does
not exist. But no one has yet been able to prove it. Therefore, God exists." In each case,
the arguer tries to use the lack of evidence as support for a positive claim about the truth
of a conclusion. There is one situation in which doing this is not fallacious: if qualified
researchers have used well-thought-out methods to search for something for a long time,
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they haven't found it, and it's the kind of thing people ought to be able to find, then the
fact that they haven't found it constitutes some evidence that it doesn't exist.
Tip: Look closely at arguments where you point out a lack of evidence and then draw a
conclusion from that lack of evidence.
H. Straw man
Definition: One way of making our own arguments stronger is to anticipate and respond
in advance to the arguments that an opponent might make. In the straw man fallacy, the
arguer sets up a wimpy version of the opponent's position and tries to score points by
knocking it down. But just as being able to knock down a straw man, or a scarecrow, isn't
very impressive, defeating a watered-down version of your opponents' argument isn't
very impressive either.
Example: "Feminists want to ban all pornography and punish everyone who reads it! But
such harsh measures are surely inappropriate, so the feminists are wrong: porn and its
readers should be left in peace." The feminist argument is made weak by being
overstatedin fact, most feminists do not propose an outright "ban" on porn or any
punishment for those who merely read it; often, they propose some restrictions on things
like child porn, or propose to allow people who are hurt by porn to sue publishers and
producers, not readers, for damages. So the arguer hasn't really scored any points; he or
she has just committed a fallacy.
Tip: Be charitable to your opponents. State their arguments as strongly, accurately, and
sympathetically as possible. If you can knock down even the best version of an
opponent's argument, then you've really accomplished something.
I. Red herring
Definition: Partway through an argument, the arguer goes off on a tangent, raising a side
issue that distracts the audience from what's really at stake. Often, the arguer never
returns to the original issue.
Example: "Grading this exam on a curve would be the most fair thing to do. After all,
classes go more smoothly when the students and the professor are getting along well."
Let's try premise-conclusion outlining to see what's wrong with this argument:
Premise: Classes go more smoothly when the students and the professor are getting along
well.
Conclusion: Grading this exam on a curve would be the most fair thing to do.
When we lay it out this way, it's pretty obvious that the arguer went off on a tangentthe
fact that something helps people get along doesn't necessarily make it more fair; fairness
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and justice sometimes require us to do things that cause conflict. But the audience may
feel like the issue of teachers and students agreeing is important and be distracted from
the fact that the arguer has not given any evidence as to why a curve would be fair.
Tip: Try laying your premises and conclusion out in an outline-like form. How many
issues do you see being raised in your argument? Can you explain how each premise
supports the conclusion?
J. False dichotomy
Definition: In false dichotomy, the arguer sets up the situation so it looks like there are
only two choices. The arguer then eliminates one of the choices, so it seems that we are
left with only one option: the one the arguer wanted us to pick in the first place. But often
there are really many different options, not just twoand if we thought about them all,
we might not be so quick to pick the one the arguer recommends!
Example: "Caldwell Hall is in bad shape. Either we tear it down and put up a new
building, or we continue to risk students' safety. Obviously we shouldn't risk anyone's
safety, so we must tear the building down." The argument neglects to mention the
possibility that we might repair the building or find some way to protect students from
the risks in questionfor example, if only a few rooms are in bad shape, perhaps we
shouldn't hold classes in those rooms.
Tip: Examine your own arguments: If you're saying that we have to choose between just
two options, is that really so? Or are there other alternatives you haven't mentioned? If
there are other alternatives, don't just ignore themexplain why they, too, should be
ruled out. Although there's no formal name for it, assuming that there are only three
options, four options, etc. when really there are more is similar to false dichotomy and
should also be avoided.
K. Begging the question
Definition: A complicated fallacy; it comes in several forms and can be harder to detect
than many of the other fallacies we've discussed. Basically, an argument that begs the
question asks the reader to simply accept the conclusion without providing real evidence;
the argument either relies on a premise that says the same thing as the conclusion (which
you might hear referred to as "being circular" or "circular reasoning"), or simply ignores
an important (but questionable) assumption that the argument rests on. Sometimes people
use the phrase "beg the question" as a sort of general criticism of arguments, to mean that
an arguer hasn't given very good reasons for a conclusion, but that's not the meaning
we're going to discuss here.
Examples: "Active euthanasia is morally acceptable. It is a decent, ethical thing to help

another human being escape suffering through death."
Let's lay this out in premise-conclusion form:

47
Premise: It is a decent, ethical thing to help another human being escape suffering
through death.
Conclusion: Active euthanasia is morally acceptable.
If we "translate" the premise, we'll see that the arguer has really just said the same thing
twice: "decent, ethical" means pretty much the same thing as "morally acceptable," and
"help another human being escape suffering through death" means "active euthanasia."
So the premise basically says, "Active euthanasia is morally acceptable," just like the
conclusion does! The arguer hasn't yet given us any real reasons why euthanasia is
acceptable; instead, she has left us asking, "Well, really, why do you think active
euthanasia is acceptable?" Her argument "begs" (that is, evades) the real question (think
of "beg off").
Here's a second example of begging the question, in which a dubious premise which is
needed to make the argument valid is completely ignored: "Murder is morally wrong. So
active euthanasia is morally wrong." The premise that gets left out is "active euthanasia is
murder." And that is a debatable premiseagain, the argument "begs" or evades the
question of whether active euthanasia is murder by simply not stating the premise. The
arguer is hoping we'll just focus on the uncontroversial premise, "Murder is morally
wrong," and not notice what is being assumed.
Tip: One way to try to avoid begging the question is to write out your premises and
conclusion in a short, outline-like form. See if you notice any gaps, any steps that are
required to move from one premise to the next or from the premises to the conclusion.
Write down the statements that would fill those gaps. If the statements are controversial
and you've just glossed over them, you might be begging the question. Next, check to see
whether any of your premises basically says the same thing as the conclusion (but in
other words). If so, you're begging the question. The moral of the story: you can't just
assume or use as uncontroversial evidence the very thing you're trying to prove.
L. Equivocation
Definition: Equivocation is sliding between two or more different meanings of a single

word or phrase that is important to the argument.
Example: "Giving money to charity is the right thing to do. So charities have a right to
our money."
The equivocation here is on the word "right": "right" can mean both something that is
correct or good (as in "I got the right answers on the test") and something to which
someone has a claim (as in "everyone has a right to life"). Sometimes an arguer will
deliberately, sneakily equivocate, often on words like "freedom," "justice," "rights," and
so forth; other times, the equivocation is a mistake or misunderstanding. Either way, it's
important that you use the main terms of your argument consistently.
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Tip: Identify the most important words and phrases in your argument and ask yourself
whether they could have more than one meaning. If they could, be sure you aren't
slipping and sliding between those meanings.
Source: UNC Writing Center, Fallacies: Mistakes in the Logic of Arguments handout
(http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/fallacies.htm)
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Part Three: The Mechanics of Critical Writing

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I. Working with Quotations
Contrary to what you might think, packing your paper with as many quotations as
possible will not necessarily lend greater credibility to your argument. Granted, you have
probably been told by teachers to provide as much evidence as possible in support of
your thesis. But quotations are only one type of evidence. The bulk of your evidence
should come from your own words, either in the form of original thoughts, the
paraphrased thoughts of others, or, in literature and cultural studies courses, close reading
and interpretation of others use of language. In general, quotations pack more analytical
punch if they make brief, but memorable, appearances.
A. When to use quotations
Here are four situations in which you may wish to quote.
1. Discussing specific arguments or ideas.
Sometimes, in order to debate with clarity and specificity the ideas of others, you need to
quote those ideas word for word. So, suppose you want to challenge the following
statement made by John Doe, a well-known historian:
At the beginning of World War Two, almost all Americans assumed the war would end
quickly.
If it is especially important that you formulate a counter-argument to this claim, then you
might wish to quote the part of the statement that you find questionable and establish a
dialogue between yourself and John Doe:
Historian John Doe has argued that in 1941 "almost all Americans assumed the war
would end quickly" (Doe 223). Yet during the first six months of U.S. involvement, the
wives and mothers of soldiers often noted in their diaries their fear that the war would
drag on for years.
2. Giving added emphasis to a particularly authoritative source on your topic.
There will be times when you want to highlight the words of a particularly important and
authoritative source on your topic. For example, suppose you were writing an essay about
the differences between the lives of male and female slaves in the U.S. South. One of
your most provocative sources is a narrative written by a former slave, Harriet Jacobs. It
would then be appropriate to quote some of Jacobs's words:
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Harriet Jacobs, a former slave from North Carolina, published an autobiographical slave
narrative in 1861. She exposed the hardships of both male and female slaves but
ultimately concluded that "slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for
women."
In this particular example, Jacobs is providing a crucial first-hand perspective on slavery.

Thus, her words deserve more exposure than a paraphrase could provide.
Jacobs quoted in Harriet A. Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, ed. Jean Fagan
Yellin (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987).
3. Spicing up your prose.
In order to lend variety to your prose, you may wish to quote a source with particularly
vivid language. All quotations, however, must closely relate to your topic and arguments.
Do not insert a quotation solely for its literary merits.
One example of a quotation that adds flair:
Calvin Coolidge's tendency to fall asleep became legendary. As H. L. Mencken

commented in the American Mercury in 1933, "Nero fiddled, but Coolidge only snored."
4. Quoting in order to analyze a writers specific use of language.
In literature and cultural studies courses, we often need to quote a source text in order to
get our analysis (close reading) off the ground. You may want to quote a whole passage
or sentence, or just a word or two. Heres an example of quoting just one word to get an
analysis going:
In his famous poem Song of Myself, Whitman frequently refers to the cosmos. What
does Whitman mean by this term?
In a paper that begins this way, you would then go on to offer a thesis about the meaning
and significance of the cosmos in Whitmans poem. You would also need to quote the
text againprobably several timesin order to offer evidence of your interpretation of
the terms meaning.
B. How do I set up and follow up a quotation?
Once you've carefully selected the quotations that you want to use, your next job is to
weave those quotations into your text. The words that precede and follow a quotation are
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just as important as the quotation itself. Below are four guidelines for "setting up" and
"following up" quotations.
In illustrating these four steps, we'll use as our example Franklin Roosevelt's famous
quotation, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
1. Provide a context for each quotation.
Do not rely on quotations to tell your story for you. It is your responsibility to provide
your reader with a context for the quotation. The context should set the basic scene for
when, possibly where, and under what circumstances the quotation was spoken or
written. So, in providing a context for our above example, you might write:
When Franklin Roosevelt gave his inaugural speech on March 4, 1933, he addressed a
nation weakened and demoralized by economic depression.
2. Attribute each quotation to its source.
Even if you place an internal citation after a quotation, you must still attribute the
quotation within the text. What is attribution? Simply tell your reader who is speaking. A
good rule of thumb is this: Try reading your text aloud. Could your reader determine
without looking at your paper where your quotations begin? If not, your paper probably
contains "hanging quotations," which leave your reader hanging because they lack
attribution.
Avoid the attribution rut! There are many ways to attribute quotes besides the common
"he/she said" construction. Here are a few alternative verbs: add; remark; exclaim;
announce; reply; state; comment; respond; estimate; write; retort; predict; argue; opine;
propose; declare; criticize; proclaim; note; complain; observe; question. (If you're
unfamiliar with the meanings of any of these words, consult a dictionary before using
them!)
3. Explain the significance of the quotation.
Once you've inserted your quotation, along with its context and attribution, don't stop!
Your reader still needs your assessment of why the quotation holds significance for your
paper. Using our Roosevelt example, if you were writing a paper on the first one-hundred
days of FDR's administration, you might follow the quotation by linking it to that topic:
With that message of hope and confidence, the new president set the stage for his next
one-hundred days in office and helped restore the faith of the American people in their
government.
4. Provide a citation for the quotation.

53
All quotations, just like all paraphrases, require a formal citation. In literature and cultural
studies courses, you are generally required to use MLA (Modern Languages Association)
format. If you are not familiar with MLA format, check out the MLA web site at
www.mla.org. Remember, place the parenthetical reference or footnote/endnote number
after (not within!) the closed quotation mark.
Roosevelt declared, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" (Roosevelt, Public
Papers 11).
C. How much should I quote?
As few words as possible. Remember, any paper that you author should primarily contain
your own words. So, quote only the most pithy and memorable parts of sources. Here are
three guidelines for selecting quoted material judiciously.
1. Excerpt fragments.
Sometimes, you should quote short fragments, rather than whole sentences. Suppose you
interviewed "Jane Doe" about her reaction to John F. Kennedy's assassination. She
commented:
"I couldn't believe it. It was just unreal and so sad. It was just unbelievable. I had never
experienced such denial. I don't know why I felt so strongly. Perhaps it was because JFK
was more to me than a president. He represented the hopes of young people everywhere."
You could quote all of Jane's comments, but her first three sentences are fairly redundant.
You might instead want to quote Jane when she arrives at the ultimate reason for her
strong emotions:
Jane Doe grappled with grief and disbelief. She had viewed JFK, not just as a national
figurehead, but as someone who "represented the hopes of young people everywhere."
2. Excerpt those fragments carefully!
Quoting the words of others carries a big responsibility. Misquoting misrepresents the
ideas of others. Here's a classic example of a misquote:
John Adams has often been quoted as having said: "This would be the best of all possible
worlds if there were no religion in it."
John Adams did, in fact, write the above words. But if you see those words in context, the
meaning changes entirely. Here's the rest of the quotation:
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Twenty times, in the course of my late reading, have I been on the point of breaking out,
'this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!!!!' But in this
exclamation, I should have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion, this
world would be something not fit to be mentioned in public company-I mean hell.
As you can see from this example, context matters!
Example from: Paul F. Boller, Jr. and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake
Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions. Oxford University Press, 1989.
3. Use block quotations sparingly.
There may be times when you need to quote long passages. However, you should use
block quotations only when you fear that omitting any words will destroy the integrity of
the passage. If that passage exceeds four lines (some sources say five), then set it off as a
block quotation.
Here are a few general tips for setting off your block quotation:
Set up a block quotation with your own words followed by a colon.

Indent. You normally indent 4-5 spaces for the start of a paragraph. When setting
up a block quotation, indent the entire paragraph once from the left-hand margin.
Single space within the block quotation.
Omit quotation marks.
Follow up a block quotation with your own words.
So, using the above example from John Adams, here's how you might include a block
quotation:
After reading several doctrinally rigid tracts, John Adams recalled the zealous ranting of
his former teacher, Joseph Cleverly, and minister, Lemuel Bryant. He expressed his
ambivalence toward religion in an 1817 letter to Thomas Jefferson:
Twenty times, in the course of my late reading, have I been on the point of
breaking out, 'this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no
religion in it!!!!' But in this exclamation, I should have been as fanatical as Bryant
or Cleverly. Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be
mentioned in public company-I mean hell.
Adams clearly appreciated religion, even if he often questioned its promotion.

55
D. How do I combine quotation marks with other punctuation marks?
It can be confusing when you start combining quotation marks with other punctuation
marks. You should consult a style manual for complicated situations, but the following
two rules apply to most cases:
1) Keep periods and commas within quotation marks. So, for example:
According to Professor Jones, Lincoln "feared the spread of slavery," but many of his
aides advised him to "watch and wait."
In the above example, both the comma and period were enclosed in the quotation marks.
The main exception to this rule involves the use of internal citations, which always
precede the last period of the sentence. For example:
aides advised him to "watch and wait" (Jones 143).
Note, however, that the period remains inside the quotation marks when your citation
style involves superscript footnotes or endnotes. For example:
aides advised him to "watch and wait."2
2) Place all other punctuation marks (colons, semicolons, exclamation marks, question
marks) outside the quotation marks, except when they were part of the original quotation.
Take a look at the following examples:
The student wrote that the U. S. Civil War "finally ended around 1900"!
The coach yelled, "Run!"
In the first example, the author placed the exclamation point outside the quotation mark
because she added it herself to emphasize the absurdity of the student's comment. The
student's original comment had not included an exclamation mark. In the second
example, the exclamation mark remains within the quotation mark because it is indicating
the excited tone in which the coach yelled the command. Thus, the exclamation mark is
considered to be part of the original quotation.
E. How do I indicate quotations within quotations?
If you are quoting a passage that contains a quotation, then you use single quotation
marks for the internal quotation. Quite rarely, you quote a passage that has a quotation
56
within a quotation. In that rare instance, you would use double quotation marks for the
second internal quotation.
Here's an example of a quotation within a quotation:
In "The Emperor's New Clothes," Hans Christian Andersen wrote, "'But the Emperor has
nothing on at all!' cried a little child."
F. When do I use those three dots ( . . . )?
Whenever you want to leave out material from within a quotation, you need to use an
ellipsis, which is a series of three periods, each of which should be preceded and
followed by a space. So, an ellipsis in this sentence would look like . . . this. There are a
few rules to follow when using ellipses:
1. Be sure that you don't fundamentally change the meaning of the quotation by omitting
material.
Take a look at the following example:
"The Writing Center is located on the UNC campus and serves the entire UNC
community."
"The Writing Center . . . serves the entire UNC community."
The reader's understanding of the Writing Center's mission to serve the UNC community
is not affected by omitting the information about its location.
2. Do not use ellipses at the beginning or ending of quotations, unless it's important for
the reader to know that the quotation was truncated.
For example, using the above example, you would NOT need an ellipsis in either of these
situations:
"The Writing Center is located on the UNC campus . . ."
The Writing Center " . . . serves the entire UNC community."
3. Use punctuation marks in combination with ellipses when removing material from the
end of sentences or clauses.
For example, if you take material from the end of a sentence, keep the period in as usual.
"The boys ran to school. Even though they were out of breath, they made it on time."
"The boys ran to school. . . . they made it on time."

57
Likewise, if you excerpt material at the end of a clause that ends in a comma, retain the
comma.
"The red car came to a screeching halt that was heard by nearby pedestrians, but no one
was hurt."
"The red car came to a screeching halt . . . , but no one was hurt."
G. Is it ever okay to insert my own words or change words in a

quotation?
Sometimes it is necessary for clarity and flow to alter a word or words within a quotation.
You should make such changes rarely. In order to alert your reader to the changes you've
made, you should always bracket the altered words. Here are a few examples of situations
when you might need brackets.
1. Changing verb tense or pronouns in order to be consistent with the rest of the sentence.
Suppose you were quoting a woman who, when asked about her experiences immigrating
to the United States, commented "nobody understood me." You might write:
Esther Hansen felt that when she came to the United States, "nobody understood [her]."
In the above example, you've changed "me" to "her" in order to keep the entire passage in
third person. However, you could avoid the need for this change by simply rephrasing:
"Nobody understood me," recalled Danish immigrant Esther Hansen.
2. Including supplemental information that your reader needs in order to understand the
quotation.
For example, if you were quoting someone's nickname, you might want to let your reader
know the full name of that person in brackets.
"The principal of the school told Billy [William Smith] that his contract would be
terminated."
Similarly, if a quotation referenced an event with which the reader might be unfamiliar,
you could identify that event in brackets.
"We completely revised our political strategies after the strike [of 1934]."
3. Indicating the use of nonstandard grammar or spelling.
In rare situations, you may quote from a text that has nonstandard grammar, spelling, or
word choice. In such cases, you may want to insert [sic], which means "thus" or "so" in
Latin. Using [sic] alerts your reader to the fact that this nonstandard language is not the
58
result of a typo on your part. Always italicize "sic" and enclose it in brackets. There is no
need to put a period at the end. Here's an example of when you might use [sic]:
Twelve-year-old Betsy Smith wrote in her diary, "Father is afraid that he will be guilty of
beach [sic] of contract."
Here [sic] indicates that the original author wrote "beach of contract," not breach of
contract, which is the accepted terminology.
4. Do not overuse brackets!
For example, it is not necessary to bracket capitalization changes that you make at the
beginning of sentences. For example, suppose you were going to use part of this
quotation:
"We never looked back, but the memory of our army days remained with us the rest of
our lives."
If you wanted to begin a sentence with an excerpt from the middle of this quotation, there
would be no need to bracket your capitalization changes.
"The memory of our army days remained with us the rest of our lives," commented Joe
Brown, a World War II veteran.
Not
"[T]he memory of our army days remained with us the rest of our lives," commented Joe
Brown, a World War II veteran.
Source: UNC Writing Center, How to Quote handout

(http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/quotations.htm)
II. Word Choice
So you write a paper that makes perfect sense to you, but it comes back with "awkward"
scribbled throughout the margins or a mystifying "awk" over every third sentence.
Why are instructors so fond of "awkward"? Mainly because they had difficulty
understanding the sentence and rather than rewrite it for you, they provide a shorthand,
catchall notation that they hope will alert you to the fact that you are having word choice
troubles. (To be fair, professors often dont have time to rewrite literally hundreds of
awkward sentences in a batch of student papers. You can always seek help during the
professors office hours and/or at the writing center.)
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But how does a sentence get awkward? The short answer is, in a variety of ways,
including:
misused idioms e.g., "I sprayed the ants in their private places."
unclear pronouns e.g., "Bill Clinton hugged Al Gore, even though he didn't like
him very much."
misused words e.g., "Cree Indians were a monotonous culture until French and
British settlers arrived."
jargon e.g., "The dialectical interface between neo-Platonists and

antidisestamblishment Catholics suggests an algorithm for deontological
thought."
garbled syntax e.g., "As a woman, he liked her."
loaded language e.g., "Huck Finn suggests that to recover democratic ideals, one
must leave civilized society."
Colloquialisms e.g., "Moulin Rouge sucked because the singing was way off."
Strategies:
Look at papers that have already been graded, even in other courses, and see if
you can find patterns of errors or confusions in your writing. It is always easier to
revise when you know what you're looking for. For example, if instructors have
been saying that the word choice in your papers is confusing, try to make sure that
you are using the right words in the right context. In this case, try not to use words
you are unfamiliar with. If you do use words that you're not entirely familiar with,
make sure that both the meaning and the context are appropriate by consulting a
dictionary.
Read your paper out loud. While we do not write the way we speak, your written
words should make sense to both you and other listeners when read out loud. If
they don't, there's no chance that they make any better sense on paper. So, if you
read out loud a sentence that seems confusing to you, even though you wrote it
(happens to me all the time), do your best to rewrite it in words, syntax, and/or
grammar that make the meaning clear. This is not a guarantee to recognize every
unclear meaning or wordy expression, but if you read every word at a relatively
slow pace, you can avoid a good number of pitfalls.
Have someone not familiar with the material or even the academic discipline read
the paper (or read it to them to combine with the strategy above). If they are
confused by some of the sentences, try not to justify it by assuming they just don't
know enough. Instead, try to rewrite the sentences so that your reader can follow
along at all times.
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The slash/option technique. Write out two or three or four choices for a
questionable word or a confusing sentence. Pick those which seem to most aptly
suit and clearly indicate your meaning, or combine different parts to do the same.
By literally seeing the choices we often have in our head, we can better evaluate
what words and sentences are better than others.
Questions to Ask Yourself:
What word trouble do I usually have on other papers? Are there examples of that
trouble here?
If I had to explain this point to someone out loud, would I use these words? What
words would I use?
What's the easiest way to write these sentences?
Am I positive this word means what I think it means?
Have I found the best word, or have I just settled for the most obvious, or the
easiest, one?
Source: UNC Writing Center, Word Choice/Wordiness Handout

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/word_choice.html
III. Parallel Structure
Parallel structure means using the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas
have the same level of importance. This can happen at the word, phrase, or clause level.
The usual way to join parallel structures is with the use of coordinating conjunctions such
as "and" or "or."
1. Words and Phrases
With the -ing form (gerund) of words:
Parallel: Mary likes hiking, swimming, and bicycling.
With infinitive phrases:
Parallel: Mary likes to hike, to swim, and to ride a bicycle.
OR
Mary likes to hike, swim, and ride a bicycle.
61
(Note: You can use "to" before all the verbs in a sentence or only before the first one.)
Do not mix forms.
Not Parallel: Mary likes hiking, swimming, and to ride a bicycle.
Parallel: Mary likes hiking, swimming, and riding a bicycle.
Not Parallel: The production manager was asked to write his report quickly, accurately,
and in a detailed manner.
Parallel: The production manager was asked to write his report quickly, accurately, and
thoroughly.
Not Parallel: The teacher said that he was a poor student because he waited until the last
minute to study for the exam, completed his lab problems in a careless manner, and his
motivation was low.
Parallel: The teacher said that he was a poor student because he waited until the last
minute to study for the exam, completed his lab problems in a careless manner, and
lacked motivation.
2. Clauses
A parallel structure that begins with clauses must keep on with clauses. Changing to
another pattern or changing the voice of the verb (from active to passive or vice versa)
will break the parallelism.
Not Parallel: The coach told the players that they should get a lot of sleep, that they
should not eat too much, and to do some warm-up exercises before the game.
Parallel: The coach told the players that they should get a lot of sleep, that they should
not eat too much, and that they should do some warm-up exercises before the game.
or
Parallel: The coach told the players that they should get a lot of sleep, not eat too much,
and do some warm-up exercises before the game.
Not Parallel: The salesman expected that he would present his product at the meeting,
that there would be time for him to show his slide presentation, and that questions would
be asked by prospective buyers. (passive)
Parallel: The salesman expected that he would present his product at the meeting, that
there would be time for him to show his slide presentation, and that prospective buyers
would ask him questions.
3. Lists after a colon

62
Be sure to keep all the elements in a list in the same form.
Not Parallel: The dictionary can be used for these purposes: to find word meanings,
pronunciations, correct spellings, and looking up irregular verbs.
Parallel: The dictionary can be used for these purposes: to find word meanings,
pronunciations, correct spellings, and irregular verbs.
Proofreading Strategies to try:
Skim your paper, pausing at the words "and" and "or." Check on each side of
these words to see whether the items joined are parallel. If not, make them
parallel.
If you have several items in a list, put them in a column to see if they are parallel.
Listen to the sound of the items in a list or the items being compared. Do you hear
the same kinds of sounds? For example, is there a series of "-ing" words
beginning each item? Or do your hear a rhythm being repeated? If something is
breaking that rhythm or repetition of sound, check to see if it needs to be made
parallel.
Source: Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL), Parallel Structure handout

(http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_parallel.html
63
Part IV: TEMPLATES FOR INVENTION
This section contains several blank worksheets that you can use to brainstorm ideas and
to arrange your thinking as you are preparing to draft an essay. You can also use these
templates to chart and organize portions of existing essays that you are trying to
strengthen and revise. By using these templates, you can be sure that your essay has all
the desirable components of a strong critical essaylike an argument, evidence,
warrants, claims, and significanceand none of the undesirable oneslike rants and
personal reflections.
If youre not sure how to use these templates, feel free to ask Professor Tomso for a
demonstration.
Essay Working Title: __________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Observations (What interests you or strikes you as worth talking about.)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Claim 1 (A concise statement of your interpretation. Someone must be able to disagree with this claim for it to be argumentative.)
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Evidence 1 (Usually a quotation or other element from a text.)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Warrant 1 (A clear and logical statement of how and why your evidence supports your claim. If you cant supply this, you are making up reality.)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Close Reading (Notes for extended, methodical interpretations of textual elements. Supporting logic, relevant counterarguments, explanations of texts key terms/ideas, etc..)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Claim 2
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Evidence 2
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Warrant 2
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Close Reading
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Significance (The big picture. Must answer the So What question. This is usually an abstract rather than a literal statement.)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Personal Reactions (Your own rants and raves, feelings and judgments. Spare your readers!)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Claim 2
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Evidence 2
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Warrant 2
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Close Reading
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Claim 2
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Evidence 2
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Warrant 2
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Close Reading
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Critical Writing

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An Introduction to Critical Writing and Analytical Thinking

Edited, Annotated, and Co-Written by Professor Gregory Tomso

All material reprinted with permission.

PART ONE: THE PHILOSOPHY OF CRITICAL WRITING .............................................. 4

I. THE SEARCH FOR MEANING ..................................................................................................... 5

PART TWO: THE PRACTICE OF CRITICAL WRITING ................................................. 20

I. THESIS STATEMENTS ............................................................................................................... 21

PART THREE: THE MECHANICS OF CRITICAL WRITING......................................... 49

I. WORKING WITH QUOTATIONS ................................................................................................ 50

B. HOW DO I SET UP AND FOLLOW UP A QUOTATION? .................................................................. 51

PART IV: TEMPLATES FOR INVENTION ......................................................................... 63

PART ONE: The Philosophy of Critical Writing

I. The Search for Meaning

Writing an analysis of a piece of fiction can be a mystifying process. First, literary

Source: UNC Writing Center, Writing About Literature Handout

II. The Nature and Importance of Arguments

B. Why are arguments important?

III. A Formal Definition of Critical Writing

IV. Developing a Topic

"What is the author trying to prove?"

B. More Strategies for Critical Reading: Rants and Other Ways of

1. Dealing with Your Feelings-Go Ahead and Rant

2. Character as a Literary Device

3. Thinking about a texts rhetorical situation: Questions for Analytical Readers

Are there any terms or phrases that seem historically specific?

C. Some Common Topics for Literary and Cultural Analysis

What kinds of topics are good ones?

A discussion of a works characters: Are they realistic, symbolic, historically-

D. Using Patterns and Problems to Develop Topics

If nothing immediately strikes you as interesting or no patterns or problems jump out at

Source: UNC Writing Center, Writing About Literature Handout

E. Thinking about Literary Form to Help Develop a Topic

Source: UNC Writing Center, Writing About Literature Handout

1. Plot Summary Syndrome

2. Right Answer Roulette

3. The "Everything is Subjective" Shuffle

V. Higher Order Thinking

A. Significance and the So What Question.

Original Source: UNC Writing Center, Writing About Literature Handout

B. Moving from Literal to Abstract Thinking

For young scholars, perhaps the most challengingand thrillingaspect of critical

Washington Irvings The Legend of Sleepy Hollow describes characters

If all knowledge about what gender is were to be based on Washington

Part Two: The Practice of Critical Writing

A. Dos and Donts

Shakespeares Hamlet is a play about a young man who seeks revenge.

Hamlet experiences internal conflict because he is in love with his mother.

You also want to avoid a thesis statement like this:

A better thesis would be this:

B. More Dos and Donts

A thesis is never a question. Readers of academic essays expect to have questions

A thesis should never be vague, combative, or confrontational. An ineffective thesis

Source: Writing Center at Harvard, author Maxine Rodburg

C. Word Choice and Thesis Writing

Source: UNC Writing Center, Word Choice/Wordiness Handout

II. Close Reading

A. Close Reading Defined

B. How to Close Read: Lesson One

1. Read with a pencil in hand, and annotate the text.

I am analyzing __A in order to argue _B__________.

An important element of ___B_ is C_______.

_C_ is significant because _________________________________.

I am analyzing __A in order to argue _B__________.

In order to complicate our understanding of B____, I will now discuss

C__. C complicates our understanding of _B____ in

the following ways: X, Y_, _Z______.